Defences – The 26th Hunger Games SYOT(closed)
by lsteed
Summary: After the 25th games, Roman Rasts - Head Gamemaker, is looking forward to his new bunch of tributes. SYOT
1. Chapter 1

Defences – The 26th Hunger Games.

**Roman Rasts – Gamemaker.**

I had to admit that the 25th games were fun. I mean, if opinion polls were anything to go by, voting in tributes was definitely the way to go.

Last years victor was from 6, which, in retrospect, satisfied the outcries of their district. District 6's first Victor, he wasn't all that big, in fact, he was average at everything. I'm assuming that the only reason he was voted in was his association with corrupt gambling issues in the district. He strolled his way to victory in the large forested arena. Everyone else was just in pure shock or disbelief that this was happening to them. Of course there was more than a few insane amongst the lot, but they devoured themselves. I think that last year his victory was mainly due to a solid attitude and years and years of building a thick skin. Almost nothing could tear down his defences.

This year is different. I need interesting tributes. Last year everyone had some sort of reason for being there, they all had faults. What I long for is a random pool of tributes; it makes for so much more fun. There is nothing like a spread of tributes, some sweet like jam, others smooth like butter.

I need strong and weak, calm and crazy, old and young. The more diverse they are the harder it makes it. If they all have different weaknesses and strengths, then well, there is more opportunity for drama to unfold, and in the end, isn't that what The Hunger Games is? A drama?

For the past 12 months the new arena had been in construction. It could probably hold an entire army. If the games weren't on that's what I would be using it for, and they might in the end. That is, provided it's not ruined in the process.

**Tribute form.**

Name:

Age:

District(s):

History:

Hobbies:

Habits:

Personality:

Family:

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Morality:

Plan of Attack:

Bloodbath Y/N:

Odds to Win (Realistically):

Alliances Y/N (How many?):

Preference of death (Remember 1/24 shot to win):

Other:

I'll be doing one POV per character: Which one would you like written? - Pre - reaping, Reaping, Goodbyes, Train Rides, Training, Scores, Interviews, Pre-Arena - pick 1/2/3:

Reaction to reaping:

**So the form is short but sweet, I think the more well thought out tributes the better. I like tributes with a plan, whether or not that plan is accomplished or not is a different matter. Also, if you want to add anything please do, my victor will probably be a very well thought out tribute that I can really work with. Lastly, please no blind tributes, I mean, they won't win, there is no point. Feel free to submit mulitple if you would like. I'll be more willing to accept multiple if one was a bloodbath :)**

**This is my first story, and I know that usually puts off people, and I would be put off too. However I'm pretty sure I'll finish this before I head back to Uni, so I'd like to give it a shot. **


	2. D10 - Richy

**District 10 Male: Richard Gerdy**

Today is always the longest. Ever since I can remember, the children of district 10 were herded into yards like the sheep we are. I guess it's kind of ironic in a way, coming from District 10. Haphazard movements from parents and children disorientate me like how the dogs disorientate the sheep during muster. It's almost unbearable, I can't find my way around, I'm confused and I'm overwhelmed.

"Yo, Richy, over here!" A large voice yells into my eardrums. "I saved you a space." I turn around to see a beaming, bright red-headed fool waving his arms hysterically in my direction. Even though I was running around like a chicken with its' head chopped off and clearly confused, I feel like today is not the day to joke around, you don't 'save a space' for someone at the reaping. This isn't camp.

"Seriously Fred, what on earth do you think you're doing? This isn't camp; this is serious. Don't 'save me a spot' you fool."

I think I may have overreacted, his usually bright and bubbly personality has been zapped into a black –hole and he's just staring at the ground. I mean I appreciate the sentiment of the whole thing and I'm now a bit calmer, but this is serious, we don't get volunteers here like in those rich, posh districts. If it's you…..it's you. Fred just doesn't seem to get that; he is very naïve, whereas I'm more of the realist. He says I'm the 'depressing' one. Well if that comes with being a realist then so be it.

"Look, I'm sorry, you know how nerve-wracking this is for all of us, I seriously just want to get in and then get out and go back home." I try an unconvincing smile at Fred to ease the tension, but he just goes back to looking at the ground.

Whatever.

I'll speak to him later.

The sun is scorching today and chafe is a serious problem here in 10. Today my mum made me wear these stupid denim pants. Sometimes she doesn't understand that teenage boys sweat. It's probably coming into the hottest part of the year as well and we don't live in the north mum, we live in the south. Seriously.

She also gave me this cap thing, which honestly makes me look like I'm homeless. Mum said it 'brings out the green of my eyes'. Sure. No one will care about the greenness of my eyes or the fact that I'm built like skeletor because I'm not exactly counting on a close up.

One time last year my mum actually bought my dad a new pair of working gloves. It was hilarious because they were jammed with fake plastic crystals, and it looked like something a poor capitol citizen would wear. Of course my dad being very macho had none of that. She's crazy sometimes, but she is mine and I wouldn't change that.

I smile at the thought when our ever so bubbly Capitol escort, Henrietta Habblesmith, walks along the podium. Every single child holds their breath as her heels make the 'click click click' as she walks across the stage. It's almost as if her heels are matching the beat of a countdown timer. 'Click'…5…'Click'…..4…..'Click'….3….'Click'…..2…..'Click'…1 …It's here.

"Hello and welcome to this years Hunger Games reaping in District 10."

Her voice reminds me of when I accidently stepped on tail of a lying down sheep once. It really isn't appealing.

Our district mayor and a multitude of 'importants' stand on the podium, including our two victors, Heath and Hendra who won back to back years around about a decade ago. Neither of them have their eyes open. For once I would like them to stare into the crowd, exude confidence you know, it really would help the rest of us, give us a fighting chance instead of making us look weak.

Little miss lamb continues to read her obligatory spiel. After three years as an escort you would assume she wouldn't need palmcards anymore. She looks up from her cards and grins. A grin that I feel like is aimed right at me. Slowly she moves to her right over to the 'dome of doom', as we like to refer to it here in 10. Her ghoul like hand around rustles around in the dome, teasing us, haunting us, frightening us.

Her orange lips open and she baa's out.

" The male tribute for District 10 in the 26th annual hunger games is…..Richard Gerdy"

Crap.

**So, I'm just going to write tributes as I get them. This is the first one. What does everyone think of the length? Should I extend more? Submissions are still open I have 7 so far, so heaps of availability. I forgot to add What your character looks like in the form, so if you submit, don't forget to talk about that.**


	3. D8 - Lia

**District 8 –Lia Davidson(13)**

I cried last year, and I'm crying again this year. My room is silent. I look in front of the mirror and wipe away the beads of tears that roll down my cheek and tie my long straw coloured hair up into a bun.

"Get yourself together Lia, for God's sake. Don't let them see you cry. Do you want your sister to think you're weak?" I try to breath slowly to calm myself down, only 5 minutes before we have to go.

Last year was horrible, the girl that was chosen cried and cried and cried. I suppose it would be worse when a whole district says 'we don't like you'.

"I won't be like that, I won't be like that, I WON'T be like that." That was more of a shout than a statement. Oops.

"Lia, are you alright? You sound anxious." A tiny voice beckons from outside the door.

"Yes Anise, I'm fine. Just putting on the final touches before we leave."

At that exact moment I get a grip, take a deep breath and open the door. As I walk out of my room I see Anise staring at me in amazement.

"What do you think?" I ask.

"You've never looked more like a Princess. EVER!" She excitedly replies.

Well I fooled one of them; now I only have to fool the parents. Again, I take a deep breath before I start down the stairs. I accidently trip about halfway down before I see me parents standing at the door ready to leave. I recover and stand there strong and confidently. Little do they know, this is just a façade. A sweet kind face covers what is actually a sprinkler that only moments ago had a rock wedged in to stop the spray.

"Ok!" I gather myself. "Are we ready?"

At the Reaping

"Welcome to the 26th Annual Hunger Games everyone. After the excitement of last year we are ready for another round of tributes from the wonderful District 8."

I vomit in my mouth a little bit. That's Penny Thong, our escort, and she kind of looks like a half eaten watermelon today. A dress with 2 vertical layers an outer green one, and an inner deep pink one sprinkled with black dots. I say half eaten because she has obviously had surgery to 'enhance' her hips and shoulders.

She goes through the necessary statements and the message from the Capitol explaining the Hunger Games before she moves over to the reaping bowl, or as we call it here in 8; the Sacrificial Bowl.

"The female tribute for District 8 is…..Lia Davidson."

What? What was that? Did I mishear you?

With everyone in my row looking at me I don't think I misheard her. It's me.

The row parts and peacekeepers surround me to bustle me up on stage. Where I stand. Frozen. Looking out into a sea of misery completely shell-shocked. There is commotion among the crowd as a sense of unease ripples through the sea of misery. NEVER have we had a tribute under the age of 15. I don't know if it's sheer dumb luck over the past 25 years, but it's all changed now, and clearly, the District isn't happy.

Moments later Penny Thong reads out another name. Harold Hogger.

No! Not him! Anyone but him!

A rough looking 15 year old walks up rather confidently onto the stage with a smug swagger and a snort, almost a laugh. He walks straight past and purposefully barges me with his elbow like an evil bulldozer on his way through. His face grins as I fall backwards onto the hard surface of the podium and try to stand up to regain my footing and my confidence. But it fails. I burst into tears. Emotions ooze out of the tear ducts of my body as I sob and sniffle uncontrollably.

In the depths of my brain I can hear a tiny high voice yelling from the crowd.

"Don't be like that! Don't be like that! DON'T be like that!" The last one was kind of like the shout of an order.

It's Anise, yelling as loud as she can, and I hear her. The tears stop and I once again stand. Looking out into the sea of misery, strong, confident. I smile at the words. She heard me this morning and knew I was afraid. Well I still am, but at least the capitol will love this rollercoaster of emotion.

I don't want to go in to the Hunger Games, especially not with the school bully who made my life miserable from day 1.

But if I have to I will, and I'll try my damned hardest to get back here.

**Submissions are still OPEN!  
>At the moment I have openings for Males Districts: 1,4,5,6,7,9,11,12<strong>

**& Females Districts: 2,3,6,7,9,12**

**Remember to include what they look like. And also possibly what you want to happen in the POV chapter. Hope you liked this one!**


	4. D2 - Tanya

**District 2 – Tanya Ravenwood (16)**

Even if I'm reaped, someone will volunteer, so I'm not too worried about how I look today. I sing as I walk. There is a dull silence in the district, not many people looking at me, which is unusual. I assume it's because I'm of reaping age, but people usually volunteer, so that can't be it. Well, I am wearing torn tights, a baggy singlet, no shoes and have extremely bloodshot eyes, so maybe that's it. Last night obviously wasn't the best. I stayed in the Library bathroom. There is no surveillance there, so it's safe. I mean, I could go home, but that would actually require me to see and talk to my dad.

It's not fun to see your dad bring home a different lady every night. Sometimes they would talk to me. Don't please, you are beneath me. You know that really old story Bambi right? Where Bambi's mum dies and then Bambi is alone? Well that's like my entire life story, they should've asked me for the rights, I'd be rich. Because of my dad's newfound 'tendencies' I find it easier to just walkaround this district than stay at home. Just like Bambi, I have been forced out on my own. Except Bambi's dad didn't own a mansion with 4 levels. Mine did. Yeh, that's how bad it is. Which in turns brings us back to myself strolling the streets in torn tights, a baggy singlet and no shoes.

Whatever, no one will care if I rock up to the reaping like this anyway. I hope to blend in, I should probably get a shawl or cowl or something to cover up my hair if I hope to blend. My see-through skin and platinum blond hair don't exactly do me any favours in a situation like this. The more detached from reality I appear, the more people leave me alone, the more rumours they spread, the more rumours my dad hears and then the more my pleas for attention and love fall at the feet of a desolate soul.

'Maybe I should just volunteer then.'

I've said that a couple of times. Just to see if he still loves me. I haven't had a response in three years.

Reaping:

The boys called first. Lanius Marais. I swear I've never seen this guy before. Trust me, I would know it if I have. He is like Popeye on spinach, except replace spinach with protein powder and replace Popeye with a T-Rex. He obviously volunteered. Replacing a whimpering 13-year-old boy with braces. Not only is he humongous in every way, he is so poised and might I add, gorgeous.

TANYA RAVENWOOD. A voice is screaming, I mean screaming! I didn't even notice because I was examining the ripples of muscles on the forearm of the new tribute. Now though, I'm fully aware of what is happening. Someone is calling out my name, which is impossible. We should have a volunteer. I don't actually WANT to go in, I only say that to my dad to get a rise out of him. By now, the Peacekeepers are barging their way through the crowd to drag me onto stage like a ragdoll. This isn't right. This ISN'T right! WHERE is our volunteer!

Oh no, I know what's going to happen next and I can't help it. I start screaming. I'm actually being dragged across the ground and I'm screaming.

'WHERE IS THE VOLUNTEER,' 'WHERE IS THE VOLUNTEER'. Why do I always make things worse?

As I am forced onto stage I am now fully aware of the situation and my eyes widen in shock. Let me recap for you. Okay, so, I'm wearing torn tights, a baggy singlet, no shoes, bloodshot eyes, I've just been dragged through the dirt, my hair is a mess, I screamed for a volunteer and now I stand here, in front of my district with dirt caked onto my face.

Well Tanya, you certainly know how to make an entrance.

I manage a bit of a wave and smile now. Is it too late? Do I still look like an idiot? My district partner clearly thinks I'm an idiot. He's standing about two metres away and staring at me with a smirk on his face whilst he is shaking his head. WHILST he is shaking his head, could it get any worse?

Well it does. His eyes flow back onto the crowd in front of him, so my eyes follow. This time I know we are searching for different things. I know my dad won't come to see me goodbye. I know it. So I try for one last look. One last linger, to see if I mean something to him. Let me reword that…to see if I meant something to him.

Eyes glossing over face after face in the crowd searching for him until I finally spot him. There he is….

Arm around a woman, whispering in her ear, laughing and giggling with her. I stare at him and catch his eye for a brief moment. He knows. And now he knows that I know. So what does he do? He turns and walks off and I know that now; I will forever be haunted by this moment, and so will he. The only problem for him is that my forever is sure to be a lot less than his.

**Submissions are still OPEN!  
>At the moment I have openings for Males Districts: 1,4,5,7,9,12<strong>

**& Females Districts: 9**

**Remember to include what they look like. And also possibly what you want to happen in the POV chapter. Hope you liked this one!**


	5. D6 - Wing

**District 6 – Norman Wing (15)**

Doof Doof…..Doof Doof Doof….Doof Doof. HAH! YES! Finally, the blood. I've been at this for 2 hours, just punching away, dodging and weaving around this bag, pretending it's someone I hate and now the blood comes. It feels good, warm, and sticky as it rolls down my knuckles. Doof Doof Doof…Doof…Doof Doof. There is nothing like this. I walk over and turn the music up. It's my pump up music. Dancing around on my feet like a pretend boxer ready to go, I move my neck from side to side waiting for the crack to come before I start again.

'Crack'. Lets go. Doof…..Doof Doof….

Hours later I stand there, exhausted and fatigued with a shiny sweat over my entire body, biceps enormous and my knuckles bleeding profusely. The warehouse is completely empty and I think it's around midnight. Mum will think I've 'worked late' again. Just one last think before I go home. On a cabinet to my left I see the drawer. It calls to me like a silent voice enticing me over. So I go. I unlock it, open the lid and see the three tablets sitting there. I grab one, roll it in between my fingers and stare at the magnificent pill. My body craves it, needs it. My fingers shake because I rely on it. Morphling. The sweetest substance ever created. It's the hallucinations that I desire, the ones that you can't tell whether it is reality or not. A place in the world so much more than what 'this' is, somewhere where I go and indulge in every way possibly, a place where my body lives in ecstasy. They keep me going every night until the next monotonous day begins.

This hallucination is a strange one.

I'm walking in two straight lines towards what looks like a carnival. An enormous tent and entertainers with giant red lips and polka doted onesies as the predominant features. They're all holding funny shaped balloons that look like swords. Oh clowns, and you wonder why children are afraid of you. Anyway, the clowns show us to our seats. They have divided all of the public in the carnival tent by ages and sex and the stage now fills with many different characters. Lining the stage in front of us is the carnival director welcoming us to the show. There is also a Lion Tamer up there, a couple of Lions and two trapeze artists, all with very serious looks on their faces. Next they show us a video of their past performances. So many colours spraying out of all the different people in the video, splashes of blue coming out of more clowns. Clowns falling down, clowns fighting, clowns killing….. That's strange. Oh well, never mind, I guess it's just a preview for the upcoming show. I can appreciate that.

The carnival director moves back to the podium and starts talking again. I think he tries to crack a joke. No one around me is laughing.

You know what? I'm going to give him a pity laugh.

'Ahahahahahahahah' I yell. 'Good one!'

The entire crowd in the carnival tent as well as all the clowns with their swords turn around to look at me. What did I do? Make a sick joke? Whatever.

The director goes back to talking before walking over to a giant fish bowl and pulling out some fish.

A little girl then walks up onto the stage with the clowns pointing their balloon swords at her back. She stands next to the director now. That's cute. She must be a demonstrator. I wonder that they will be doing? Before I know it, the clowns now gather around me and point their balloon swords into my back.

"Woah guys! Put your balloons away, I'm capable of doing this myself." I tell them. The clowns stare at each other as if they are bemused at what I am saying.

I look at them again and say "Really? I can walk up the stairs by myself, can't hold the show up any longer" This seems to do it, they turn around and go back to guarding the exit of the carnival tent.

Silly clowns. I know what to do, all I have to do is stand next to the director. Then this girl and I perform some sort of sick as trick. Goody! I've always wanted to be a demonstrator! So I walk up to the director and look into his eyes.

"Mr. Director?" I ask. "What trick will we be doing today?"

"Trick boy? This is no circus. This is The Hunger Games."

Ohhhhhh crap. I shake my head vigorously side to side. Back and forth. Up and down.

Ohhhhhh crap.

Ohhhhhh crap.

The world is shaking. My head is ringing. Eyes are blurring.

Then it all comes back into focus and I look up again.

Our escort is looking at me.

"This is The Hunger Games boy, snap out of it."

"Shake hands you two."

I shake hands with the tiny girl next to me and the Peacekeepers with their balloon like batons lead us away to our fate.

**Well. That chapter was an experiment. I would like to know what you all thought of the hallucination reaping. So, I now only have male positions open! I would love to get them all done to start some planning.**

**So the male spots are 1,4,5,7,9,12. Get submitting. You can submit either via review or PM, after some people asked. Remember to review as well. I like the feeback ****J**


	6. D12 - Ash

**District 12 - Ash Haven (14)**

Mum is always sick. So here I sit with her again. It's 3am in the morning and she just stopped dry heaving. Of course we haven't had a doctor come and see her, I mean that is completely out of the question. Plus I don't even know if there is a qualified doctor in the district at all. My family probably isn't even privy to that information. I imagine what things would be like if we didn't live in 12. There would be fields of green, which we could run on. We could be free. Mum and dad would gather around me and hug me from both directions and we would be happy. I could own a guitar like the one they have at school. We could afford bandages and medicines and bathe more than once a fortnight. At least that's how I imagine the other districts live. For all I know we could be the least oppressed of them all.

My elbow slips off the end of the table and a stumble back in to reality. Dammit.

Mum's still out to it and she probably will be for the rest of the night before she struggles onto her feet to start her 'work'. I wouldn't call it work Pere say, I would call it staggering around the house in an upright coma. She will give dad a kiss before he makes his way back to the mines and then his 'work colleague' Bernice who is staying with us will exit shortly after.

I hate Bernice.

And Nathalia and Zael. All of dads' 'work colleagues' that stay here on a different night of the week, but I hate Bernice the most. Every night I try not to stew over it because it keeps me up, so I try and fall asleep.

Dad wakes up at around six this morning. I've been sleeping on the floor next to mum for the past 3 or so hours just in case she wakes up. He walks in gives mum a kiss on the cheek and heads to the mines.

He turns to me, gives me a shake and says; "See you at the reaping son. Be brave." before he leaves.

It almost sickens me what he does, the two-timing idiot, I mean I would say something, but he supports us, so instead, I just try to undermine his authority and mess with his 'work-colleagues'. This morning will be particularly interesting with Bernice, so I get up and sit at the kitchen table.

Bernice makes her way into the kitchen at around 7 and walks over to scoop some oats into her bowl and fills it with water. She looks around at me.

"Ash. Would you like some oats this morning?"

"No thanks Bernice, go ahead".

Bernice being Bernice adds an extra scoop of oats to her already impressive portion before she turns around and gives me a wink.

"You're kidding me Bernice?" I say.

"What's the problem kid? You're dad's the one that tells me I can have whatever I like, so keep your trap shut ok?"

Ahahaha, good, exactly what I wanted. Bernice takes another scoop of oats and puts it in her bowl. She puts it all into the dirty cooking pot and starts to cook her porridge.

The best thing is that she doesn't even know she is getting a double whammy this morning. I usually just grab some of the pig faeces and line the cooking pot with it, like icing on a cake, but this morning I have done something terrible.

Yesterday I went to the market and traded one of our finest piglets for a small vial. Of what you ask?

Well, it was a vial of… laxatives, which of course I have added to the oats.

Bernice takes her first mouthful of oats and licks her lips. She is sitting at the opposite end of the table rubbing it in my face. Oh well.

She licks the bowl clean and slams her bowl down.

"That was good Ash, won't need to eat for another week."

"Oh…..I think you might Bernice. But you'd better get going before the storm hits….I mean…Before the reaping happens."

She walks out with her coat over her shoulder like a pompous lunatic.

7:30. Okay, better get ready for the reaping. I'm usually a lot more nervous than this, but today has already been excellent. I probably won't see Bernice for a while considering she will have explosive diarrhea for a good long week, AND mum is now up with some colour in her face. Excellent!

"Ash, I laid out your reaping clothes on the bed. It's time to change" She says from the kitchen door. So I run upstairs and chuck them on. This year they are another 2 inches small for me. Oh well.

I run back downstairs and give mum a turn, like a celebrity.

"What do you think?" I ask

"I think next year you will graduate into your fathers good clothes…I'm so proud of you." On the verge of tears, it's hard to watch. We hardly ever share emotion in this house. This is one of those rare moments. I may not have mum around forever, but I know she loves me and I will remember this for the rest of my life.

I struggle with my words before turning to mum and saying "Thanks mum, I love you. Do you think you're up to it this year? Are you ready to go?"

"Of course honey," she says with a smile, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

**And then we all know what happens after that. **

**OK! So I have finally got enough tributes, submissions are closed! Thanks to all who submitted! I probably got 10 in the past 2 days for 5 spots, so I haven't accepted them all, but I accepted at least one from every submitter. If you're wondering if your tribute was accepted just PM me. Also, for narrative purposes I may have rearranged the district your tribute is in, so I hope you're okay with that!(only 1 tribute that I plan to rearrange districts) I'll try to stick to the original as much as possible though. Probably do 1 or 2 more reapings before I move on.**

**Please read and review. I like the feedback; it makes me want to continue.**

**Thanks again.**


	7. D4 - Nickel

**District 4 - Nickel Parks (18)**

6 Months Prior

The sea breeze blows as I trudge along the soft white sand. The glistening sea and the waves call to me as they have done my whole life. There is nothing better than living here in 4. Beaches, fishing, sunshine, warmth, I mean, this is the life. Even more brilliant is my house. Overlooking the beach where I walk with balconies and a lap pool it sits. The Victors' Village. I've lived there my whole life, basking in the glory of being the son of a former Victor. Dad won the 7th Hunger Games. He did it in style too. District 4's first Victor, swimming head on through the dangerous surf, body surfing in to shore and spearing tributes that called the beach home. It really was magnificent.

Me, being the son of the most recognizable person in the district has a certain reputation to live up too, and that is brilliance. I would like to think I am brilliant, with these brown eyes, this wavy brown hair, and a killer smile, who wouldn't be entranced? I have never met a person who hasn't fallen for my charm. I have never been tricked or misled; because people adore me. Just like they will when I win the games next year.

Which leads me to my current trek. Now I make my way up the sand dune and over the retaining wall that keeps the sea at bay and run another 20 metres to the entrance of our grand house to confront my parents.

"Mum! Dad!" I yell, "Come here I have something to announce."

My parents walk down the wide staircase and stare at me bemused.

"Mum. Dad. I'm volunteering for The Games next year!" I squeak out with a little too much enthusiasm. Hopefully they don't think I'm sadistic.

Dad stares at me, just stares and nothing else, then he turns around and walks off. Mum quickly runs up and gives me a big hug.

"What's wrong with him?" I ask.

"Oh nothing sweety, he just doesn't think you're ready just yet." I push her bear hug away.

"Hold on. What? He doesn't think I'm ready? I've been training for years. This is my last year to volunteer and now he doesn't think I'm ready?"

I'm astounded. Shocked. Isn't this what he wanted from his sons? Something to be proud of? I've never understood the guy and I never will. I'm volunteering. And that's the end of the discussion.

At the Reaping

"The male tribute to represent District 4 in these the 26th Annual Hunger Games is Harbour Parks."

Well isn't that just the luck for my little brother. Thank God he knows I'm volunteering this year. He's not up to it and he would freak out if he were reaped for real. He is 14 and not exactly a fighter, more of the thinker of the family. Well, I'm a thinker too, but he is a THINKER.

Peacekeepers make their way into the crows as I daydream.

Oh yeah, that's right. I'm volunteering aren't I?

"I VOLUNTEER!" I lower the tone of my voice to make me seem more manly and to make an impression to the Capitol.

Confidently I stroll up to the podium.

"Nickel Parks, volunteering for The Hunger Games." I say with authority.

Leannita Olive our district escort looks absolutely delighted. She stares at my body for longer than she is supposed to before she realizes she has a reaping to get on with. Leannita walks over to the orb at the other end of the podium to draw out the female name.

I know that the academy will finally be accepting females for the first time next year. Why they haven't done this earlier to double the chances for District 4 glory is beyond me. It's actually been a hot issue of debate in the District for the past 2 years. Our females for those games were both 12 and stood no shot. My dad is all for it. It really shakes him every year, sending off innocent girls that he spent weeks bonding with and mentoring.

Then it hits me. The reason my dad has been so solemn and disapproving of my volunteering. Why he and my mum argued whether to send me to the academy. Why he was stone-faced when I told him that that's what I wanted to do, to train at the academy. Why he has been recruiting dozens of boys my own age as competition for me. I thought it was to test me and challenge me, so that I could improve. But no, that's not why he did it at all.

He doesn't want me going in to the games. He doesn't want to send his own son into a battleground and have no control over whether or not I come back alive. I don't have time to wrap my head around the epiphany before another name is called.

"Naina Williams."

A more than attractive woman makes her way up from the 17-year-old section of the audience. She stands next to me, unmoved and unshaken. Not afraid. I like that.

"Shake hands you too." Leannita says.

I turn towards Naina, grasp her hand, giver her a wink and whisper, "Good luck beautiful."

She gives me a smile, flutters her eyelids and whispers back, "You wish sweetheart."

The Games are on, and with the son of a victor eyeing off another family win. It's sure to be one heck of a year.

**I like this chapter. It progressed nicely as I wrote it, without forcing anything. So, all of the tributes accepted are listed on my profile. Sorry if all of the ones you submitted didn't make it. Read and Review!**


	8. D9 - Indigo

**District 9 - Indigo Lexington (15)**

My sketchbook has always been the most precious thing to me in the entire world. There is nothing like the feeling of creating something from nothing. Especially something that people can admire. The satisfaction of people scanning over every line and dot you have drawn, as these lines merge together to create an optical illusion. Creating something that is very well real, but also not real at the exact same time.

Drawing is life, and it's what I plan on escaping this forsaken District with.

I scan through the pages of my sketch book admiring my own work. Drawings of grains with inexplicable detail, of fields that carry on as far as the eye can see, of my mother with her jet black hair and caramel eyes that are so similar to mine. These images are like a timeline of my life. They mature as I mature, becoming something more than what they used to be, from the perspective of a child to the perspective of an adult.

Every year I draw the reaping. Ever since I can remember I drew them. I don't know why. It seems like a large enough event that no one would ask questions as to why. But if I did have to answer why, I don't exactly know what I would say…..

Maybe it's the emotion of the event. That would make sense, although it does sound sick. It could be the spectacle with all the cameras and the capitol representation making for a scene of mixed District poverty with Capitol Bravado. But, the main reason is probably just to remember. Remember the kids who left and never came back. Remember to never take anything in my life for granted, and also to remember that sense of fear I associate with the word 'Capitol'.

I have a special section for them in my sketch book, about two-thirds of the way through. The first one I arrive at is the 17th Hunger Games. I was only six at this point in my life and therefore the picture is not too glorious. There is a simple podium and 2 tributes. One I have coloured with fiery red hair, the other with short black and slanted eyes. They both died on day 7 after drowning in rising floodwaters.

*Flip*

*Flip*

*Flip*, the 20th Hunger Games. Two 12 year olds. My drawing shows the two next to our escort who wore a bright green dress and long orange boots. Those two both died on the first day.

*Flip*, the 21st Hunger Games; completely the opposite from the year before. Two 18 year olds fighting to the death. I've crossed out the man on the left. He didn't come back. She did. Rosetta, the victor of the 21st Hunger Games, but now I've added tattoo's down both her arms. They are filled with dates and times. Dates and time of each tribute that fell before her.

*Flip*, *Flip*, *Flip*

*Flip*. Last year, two children from the loony bin who went in because apparently the whole district decided to send the mentally handicapped in instead of the strongest tributes, which is stupid.

And now the next space, today I will fill this void in. I wonder who the unlucky two will be this year. Will I be adding to them after they win? Will I be crossing them out when they die. One drawing I completely erased the head of one of the tributes. I'm assuming you can guess why I did that, and hopefully I never have to do it again.

"Indigo!" Yells a voice from the other side of the house.

"Yes Dad." I reply

"Time to go."

Already dressed, I grab my meager possessions for this years reaping.

At The Reaping

"Indigo Lexington." She stutters. Our escort, still in her blue dress and orange boots has called out my name. MY NAME!

I gasp. I mean I'm not exactly the weakest person in the district. I'm pretty strong compared to the other boys my age, but still. The Hunger Games? No thank you very much indeed.

As I walk towards the podium my stomach grumbles in time with my deathly silent footsteps. Everyone in the district is looking at me. Eyes stare at my physique and my so far emotionless journey up on to the stage. They are scoping me out. Seeing if I have what it takes to win. Whether or not District 9 is in with a shot this year.

Sorry to disappoint you all, but I hardly think so.

My stomach grumbles again. Now I'm standing up on stage with my hands in my pockets and looking down avoiding eye contact with the people I will never see again.

My stomach grumbles. Mind racing I realize that I need to look up. To capture this moment for my next masterpiece from a viewpoint that I have missed the past nine years, that is the view from the podium itself.

As my head rises to take in the scene my stomach grumbles again. This time though it doesn't stop there. With some sort of reverse swallow I projectile vomit all over the peacekeepers standing in front of me. Yellow mush now completely shrouds their view and I stare in disbelief, mouth wide open and eyes like those of an owl.

Well, at least this will be one of my more interesting drawings. I take note that I'll need to add chunks to the vomit.

**Well, 1 more reaping left before I move on. Sorry for the delayed update, I've been working a lot recently and am pushed for time. The tribute list is now up on my profile so have a look at that.**

**Remember to review and leave comments. **

**The question for this chapter is….Who is your favourite tribute so far and why?**


	9. D12 - Kelli

**District 12 – Kelli Ford (15)**

"YOU WILL DO AS I ASK OF YOU KELLI! AND IF YOU DON'T YOU CAN FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE TO LIVE."

"Mum! I am NOT going to give myself away to him. I'm FIFTEEN! FIFTEEN! I'm not some pawn on your chess board that you can maneuver wherever you would like to advance yourself."

It's probably one of our bigger fights because she refuses to listen to me. I really don't want to be married off. The guy is a loser. His parents may own the postal office and he may be rich, but he looks like someone ran over his face with a peacekeeper car. According to my mum we will be 'set for life' if I do this for her. Well I would like her to acknowledge that I am not her. Just because she was married off doesn't mean I should be too, and see how far that got her. She's still as poor as the day is long.

I need to get out of this life. I'm not doing it. No matter how often she tells me to do it. So I need to go. Now. She already said if I don't want too then I can find somewhere else to live. Well maybe that's exactly what I will do. I have friends that will take me in, and if I leave here now, then I won't be married off to tyre-face.

I've been sent to my room and locked in by the evil Queen. Quickly I grab my small supply of belongings I think I will need and shove them into a bag. I race out the broken window; the one that wasn't fixed after that pigeon flew into it, and into the night. With my head down I pass through the quiet streets of 12. No one will notice me with my dead black hair that is jumbled all over my face. If they see anything it will be my bright blue eyes peering through the dark night like a cat on the prowl. I am not on the prowl though, I am on the run, and I know exactly where to go.

*tap tap tap* I knock at the window, this one has bars over it but no glass.

After around 30 seconds of waiting a pair of eyes make themselves visible over the window awning.

"Nathan! Nathan! It's me! Let me in!" I whisper loud enough for him to hear me. At this point I am hidden behind a tree, just in case Nathans' mum is cleaning his room, like what happened last time. That was really awkward.

I hear the latch unlock on the window, I make myself visible and sneak over to the window and pounce into the room like a cat.

Sanctuary, that's what this place is, and always has been. I slept pretty good last night and snuck out the window before knocking on the front door and announcing myself to Nathans' parents. 'Just over for a visit' I told them. Little do they realize I've been here for the past 12 hours.

Nathan, with his cropped brown Mohawk and tall gangly appearance has been assigned to chores all day. Which has not been the most fun of days, but at least it gives us time to talk.

"And then she said to me that I can leave the house if I don't like it. So that's exactly what I decided to do. And now I'm here and we are scrubbing the floor, which I don't get Nathan, because the floor is just packed dirt, and we are probably just making it messier." I said all of that without a breath at all and now I'm exhausted.

"So what? You're just going to live here? You're going to roam the streets of 12 and live with the feral animals? That doesn't sound like a fantastic solution Kel."

Bloody Nathan, always the voice of reason…I hate that.

"What do you suggest I do then Nathan? Marry Tyreface McFartsbreath? Would you like to marry Tyreface McFartsbreath?"

That's what we call him between the two of us. The name is self-explanatory.

"I was going to suggest that….Well, your mum doesn't plan for this wedding to go ahead until you're 18 right?"He asks.

"Yeh, that's right."

"Well, then just wait till you're 18. At that point you'll be classified as an adult and you can do whatever the hell you want! Either that, or marry the guy, kill him and then take all of his money. Then we can buy a donkey, I've always wanted a donkey Kel."

'What on earth have donkeys got anything to do with this you idiot. I'll admit that your first plan sounds feasible, but your second plan is just atrocious. I'm not capable of killing anyone, and we both know that. I'd be horrible in The Hunger Games. Dead on day 1, bet you 1 dollar." I say to him condescendingly.

"Crap!" Nathan has obviously forgotten something. "Kel, it's reaping day. We're late!"

At the Reaping

A 14 year old boy was chosen this year, his clothes are around 2 inches too short for him and he has spiked grey hair and is rather fit. He could do well I think.

The name is being read out for the girls now. I hold me breath, as does every other girl around me. She better hurry up and read it before we all pass out from lack of oxygen.

…The…Female…Tribute…From…Distirict…..12….is…..Kelli Ford.

I'm still holding my breath. Waiting for someone else to move. But it's me.

Seriously Kelli, you need to breath now before you faint. I gulp up a huge mouthful of air and steady myself. Just like our escort speaks, everything moves in slow motion. The walk, the outcries from the crowd, the moment you look out on a crowd of beaten up miners and relieved children. It all goes in slow motion. That is until she says.."Shake …..hands….. you …..two."

I turn to my right, put my hand out and look up. Up into the grey eyes of Ash Haven in front of me. He looks almost content with what happens. And if he can handle it, so can I. I'm ready to face the outcome of the games. Plus, looking at the bright side. Either way now, I won't have to marry Tyreface McFartsbreath.

**Thanks for reading guys! Remember to review.**

**This chapters question is. What do you think will happen to Kelli in the midst of the games?**

**Hope to update more frequently in the future. Merry Christmas! Isteed**


	10. D3 Arica(Goodbyes)

**District 3 – Arica Riverbee 16, (Goodbyes)**

The boy and I walk along a deserted corridor within the Manor. We are being escorted by the thuggish brutes called Peacekeepers. I would like to know who gave them that name. Who in there right mind would call an army or insolent devils Peacekeepers? First hand experience has told me not to trust them. Don't bump into them. Don't make jokes at their expense and certainly don't look them in the eye. The ones around here do not like that at all, and I assume that is what all Peacekeepers are like.

We are separated. The strong tannish boy is taken off to the right and I'm moved along to the left, through another corridor and into what looks like an interrogation room.

"This is where you will say your goodbyes. Your first visitor will make their way in shortly. Do not sit or touch anything in this room or there will be consequences." The enormous Peacekeeper walks off and slams the door behind him. I have a look around the room and find that it's bare. Clearly I cannot touch anything or sit down if there is no means to do so. Isn't that obvious?

Now that I'm on my own I immediately start bouncing on the tips of my feet. Like I see runners do before the race of their lives. I only do it because standing around in sorrow agony doesn't appeal to me. Better to keep on my toes and bounce around ready for anything. Well, at least that's what I've been taught.

My hands bounce loosely at my side and my straight black pony tail bounces in time with them.

"I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready for this."

My fear of the unknown isn't helping the situation and I find myself talking out loud. I need to breath, I need to calm, to force that rising panic back into my body.

"Breath." I say "Push it back down."

No one is here yet. So I close my eyes and breath in and out intensely.

"Arica Riverbee. Visitor number 1."

My eyes open. Mum and dad walk into the room, which I didn't really expect; mum and dad aren't exactly fans of my habits. They caught me one day circling the tip of a knife around on my pointer finger. The callous nowadays is so thick that even the sharpest and thinnest knives don't penetrate through. This, added onto the fact that I sometimes have my outbursts, random waves of crazy come pouring out of me sometimes, and it's hard to control. So, they have kept their distance. Maybe it's because they think I'm a monster, maybe it's because they don't trust me. I'm not sure. Either way, they are here now and I'm glad to have one final goodbye to the parents who kept me clothed and fed even though they disapprove.

"Arica, your mother and I just want to let you know that we wish you good luck. We hope you come home. Just remember all we have done for you, and also remember that you have….your own ways to stay alive." Dad says hesitantly.

"Thanks dad," I reply "I hope you and mum take good care of Ashen. Don't let him be sad about me, whatever happens."

My parents nod. They both give me a quick hug before they turn on their heels and walk out of my life forever.

I wait.

10 minutes later there is a tap at the door.

"Arica Riverbee, visitor number 2. Final visitor."

I thought that would be it. Really. There is no way my parents were going to let Ashen visit me. Not in this state, with such a volatile environment they would think that I'd let crazy out of her shell.

I was wrong. Ashen walks through the door, his joyous little smile which makes him so likeable pierces through me and I smile. Thank God he is here. My little brother has always been the likeable one. He stands up for me at school when the other kids bully me. The perpetrators listen to him every time, like they almost respect him; a 13 year old boy! It really is amazing to me how his charisma flows out of his body to almost control the emotions of the people around him. My parents don't know this, but Ashen and I have a lot more in common than they think. With my fascination with knives, his grew. He brings all sorts of things he finds around the district to me. Knives, swords, anything sharp. If those bullies knew about the fact that I could jump them whenever I wanted, they would leave me alone. But I don't. There is no point of living my life in jail.

"Ashen, I'm so glad you're here." I run up to him and give him a huge hug.

"Arica, lets get down to business. We don't have long."

Alright. This is a more serious tone than I'm used to.

"Arica, you have to show them what you can do now. No more hiding. I'm not there to look out for you anymore. You won't go to jail if you stab a tribute in the face. Just pretend they are the bullies you always wanted to show up. Find a knife or something sharp and win. I know you can." He stares at me very seriously.

"Ashen, I understand what you're saying. But I don't think I have it in me to stab a 12 year old girl in the back."

"Then don't stab the 12 year olds. Go after the big ones. Let the real you finally shine in that arena. Alright?" He says almost forcefully.

"Alright Ashen."

I give him an enormous hug that lingers for to long. A peacekeeper walks in and removes him from me.

"I'll do it for you." I manage to whisper in his ear before he is taken out of my life forever.

And now I'm alone in this God forsaken room. Waiting for the inevitable doom of the games. I'll try to come back. I'll lay it all on the table and become what I've always thought I was. A strong person and a ruthless killing machine.


	11. D11 - Dorian

**District 11 – Dorian Sprout (16)**

I was never meant for this. To be reaped I mean. I'm meant to live in my district and enjoy the simple things in life. Wander through paddocks, pick fruit and vegetables, lay in the sun with the one guy I love by my side. The Hunger Games aren't meant for someone like me. They are meant for the ruthless and the powerful; the sick and twisted. But it's all too late now. I'm sitting here in this room, crying and waiting to say those final goodbyes to the ones I'm about to leave behind probably forever.

I want them to know that I won't be scared in the actual arena. It's just that - right now - nothing in the world scares me more than knowing there are things that I will never do again. Like pranking my sisters. Hugging my mother or helping my dad plant seeds while listening to his story about the seed he planted that grew into a mighty oak. I know I'll have bloodshot eyes and a sniffling nose when they come in, but that is what they have to know. I'm not scared.

"Dore, are you here"

My whole family sneak their heads past the door. Mum, dad, my two older sisters Flia and Adiva, and the two young'uns Siena and Varana. Their chocolate eyes, red hair and freckly faces so similar to mine look so morose. I run up to the whole lot of them and give them the most passionate hug I have given in my life before I stand back in front of them to speak.

"Listen everyone. Don't be sad for me. What's done is done and I'm not scared. I need you all to know that. And even though Dad; I won't be able to help you reap the rewards of our latest crop I want you to think of me whenever you plant a seed or watch it grow. You will know that's me living on and coming up to say Hi. Sisters; we grew up together and I was sometimes a bit of an arse to all of you. Just don't forget that whenever you talk to each other and tease each other that I'm there, in those eyes of the ones around you trying to get you in trouble. Mum; I'll be there in the life around you. Lingering in the family that you helped to build and nurture. Remember how wonderful of a job you have done and that I am forever appreciative for everything I have ever received."

And now I look to them after pouring my heart out on a silver platter... for some kind of reaction. They're all smiling with their eyes watering. Tears of pride and joy, tears that I wanted them to feel. One by one they come up and give me a hug, wish me good luck and tell me that we'll see each other again, but they're not sure in what life it will be. They leave and I'm alone again.

"Dorian, it's me."

Another body shows itself from the door my family just disappeared through. A strong and rugged boy from school called Brock Stanley.

When I was 13 I knew I was different. Staring at the boys from school as they walked past me on their way home, wishing I could tell them, and hoping they would reciprocate. Especially Brock. I've only told a handful of people I trust. Like my family, they didn't care, it was just another fact of life. They did warn me not to tell anyone else though because here in 11, being gay is kind of taboo still. I told Brock last year after probably a year of infatuation. We were hanging out at his house every afternoon like mates, so I told him. He understood, and it wasn't until last week he said he was feeling different towards me. We haven't spoken since.

"What are you doing here?" I inquire.

"I came to see you off obviously."

He's just standing there with his hands in his pockets and staring at me. So I walk up to him and hug him intensely before I release.

"I want to make this quick." He says.

"I just wanted to let you know that I've been very appreciative of your friendship over the past year and I didn't want to end our friendship on a sour note, so I'm here to apologize"

"There's no need for apologies Brock. I understand. I'm a very confusing person." I reply.

"Well I'm going to anyway." He continues

"Over the past few weeks I've had different feelings towards you and I left you in the dark about it. Which isn't fair. So I needed to say that… If you weren't going away, then I think we could have had something special."

Oh jeeze! Why now? Why not six months ago? It's all a bit too late. This damn reaping has ruined my life for the second time today. Now I just have to think of a reply.

"Brock, I'm going and there is nothing we can do about that. Just know I've enjoyed our time as friends and that I have no regrets about anything. Don't let this build up and eat you from the inside. It is what it is. Even though I wish it wasn't, sometimes you just have to accept it."

Now that is wisdom.

He stares at me before moving forward. I stop him.

"I don't want to complicate your life any more than what I have already. No regrets okay?"

"Okay." He agrees.

Dammit, I regret that. Now I'll never know what could have happened in these last few seconds. But I really don't want him to confuse himself anymore. So it's all for the best.

"Well then…..Good luck I suppose." He walks up to me and hugs me again. Then he pulls away, turns around and walks out of my life forever.

**Well, that was an emotional chapter. I think it got a bit too cliché though. Okay, so now we move away from the goodbyes and onto the train rides. Almost halfway to the games. Thanks for continuing to read and don't forget to review! If you want something to review about you can always tell me who your favourite tribute is and why!**


	12. D7 - Aniya(Train Ride)

**District 7 - Aniya Johnson (16)**

Well, I hate to be Debbie downer, but this is just pretty shit. I'm sitting in this room and I stink like pine cones still because I'm not allowed to have a shower yet. Apparently I have to wait until after they air the reapings. If I'm going to die, I want to be able to enjoy the hospitality of the Capitol for as long as I can and as much as I damned want. I'm literally infuriated.

My district partner Cain is all right. He is tall and tan and muscly, just how I like my guys. He also has this crooked smile that makes me weak at the knees. Now I know that The Hunger Games isn't exactly a marketplace for me to choose out men I like. But if I had a choice, he would be the first thing I pick up.

There's a knock at my door. Cain walks in. My heart is pounding and I'm so nervous.

I ask him, "Yes Cain?" Then I flick my hair back and forth like I see the models do sometimes and give out a girly giggle.

What have I become?

"Ummmmmm, okay." He looks visibly uncomfortable at my attempted flirt. Curse it. "Oaken just wanted to let us know that they will be airing the reapings shortly and that we should be there showered and ready to go. He also said he'd meet us in the lounge."

"They told me I wasn't allowed to shower till after the reapings." I reply

"Well someone was messing with you Aniya." He says. "Because everyone is waiting for us. You'd better be there soon before the reapings start. See you then." He walks out.

You've got to be kidding me. Who on earth told me I wasn't allowed to shower? That just infuriates me even more. Now I have less than 10 minutes to make sure I don't smell like a stupid forest and make my way to Cain, our Victor duo Oakey and Twiggy or whatever the hell their names are and that idiot escort Zaisha.

And I truly thought that things would get slightly better once I hopped on this train.

"Well, look who decided to finally show up. How was the past hour for you sleeping beauty?" Says Zaisha.

That is not the correct thing to say to a girl who's hair is dripping wet, has a scowl on her face and has just been reaped for The Hunger Games.

"Shove it, lizard face." I spit.

Zaisha looks completely astonished. I don't think she is used to criticism. But I can't help it. She truly does have the face of a lizard. More to the point, she is wearing a forest green morph suit in a scale type pattern. It's almost like she's asking for it. I see Cain, Oaken and Twig out of the corner of my eye laughing at the distraught look on Zaishas' face.

Well, at least I'm good for something.

"Okay," I say, "When will this pageant begin?"

Just as I ask that question the projection arrives and the volume erupts. Erupts like a volcano. The first thing I think of is that our mentors are trying to deafen us before we even get started.

"Turn that blasted technology down." I yell.

Oaken slams the volume down button as hard as he can before turning to me and smiling.

"Sorry Sleeping Beauty" He winks.

"Sorry that you almost killed your tributes of shock before we get to the Capitol. Yeh, thanks." I wittily reply.

With the volume at normalcy now I can start to hear the commentators. We are in district 1. Both tributes look like gems. Except big gems. The girl looks strong and pale, the boy is very muscly and 18. He looks very serious. I just want to give him a pat on the shoulder and tell him to lighten up.

The 2 girl looks like a dirty pigeon, while the boy actually laughs at her. He's huge. Good luck to her.

Both 3's look smart and threatening. My God that is surprising coming from 3. I can't believe we have no duds yet.

In 4 we get a very eager 18 year old and a nervous and lean non-volunteer for the girl.

5 has a girl with really bloodshot eyes and scraggly hair and almost looks like she hasn't slept in days. The boy, 14, is weak and short. Nothing to worry about.

District 6 has a delusional delinquent for the male. He looks like he's on morphing. A sweet looking 12 year old girl is reaped also.

By this point I'm losing interest. Everyone else looks utterly entranced by the whole thing. I don't really care for it. I especially don't want to see myself getting reaped, so I skip our reaping and half tune back in for 8. There is a small girl in 8 and a bigger boy who pushes her over. How horrible

9 has a freckly girl and a black headed boy who vomits. Gross.

District 10 also has a tiny girl with green eyes and blonde hair. Her district partner looks sorry for her and gives her a hug. I would too.

The last 2 districts; 11 and 12 have surprisingly non-deathly looking tributes. Except for the girl from 11. She is young and weak. Her district partner on the other hand is alert and has red hair that is almost like a beacon. Both 12's are interesting; one with grey features, the other like a polar opposite. They shake hands and then the screen fades.

"Well, what do we all think?" I ask.

Twig speaks up." I think this year has a very spread out troupe of tributes. Many ages and many that look strong, but also some that look weak. I wouldn't count us out just yet."

Oaken nods. "I agree with Twig. If we get a solid strategy together and find some willing districts to team up, then we are in with a shot. Who do you like the look of?"

Immediately Cain speaks up.

"I like the look of the 5 girl, both 3's, the 11 boy and the 12's also."

That was quick. Our escort and mentors nod and then turn to me.

"Ummmmm, I agree with the 12's. Just because I think we have the upper hand on strength. The 3's could beat us physically. In my humble opinion I think we should spearhead an alliance of 5 or 6 and make sure that the other 4 or so members aren't stronger than us. And if they do decide to turn on us, then we are both there to have each other's back. So in that case I would say the 12's, the 5 girl and try our luck with those 8's. But not the 3's because they look too threatening."

Everyone around me looks completely astonished. That's right, I just spoke some mad as strategy. Get used to it everyone. I'm more than what meets the eye.

**And with that, at least every tribute has been quickly introduced. The two questions for this chapter are. What do you think of Aniyas' strategy? And secondly. Who do you think has the best shot to win it so far?**


	13. D9 - Isabelle(Capitol Life)

**District 9 – Isabelle Roe(14)**

"OUCH!" I scream. "What are you doing now?

"Just removing these toenails to put new ones on"

My prep team is putting me through so much pain right now. I've been scrubbed and waxed and bathed for the past 3 hours.

"Can we get rid of these freckles?" asks the yellow headed one.

"No Salvatorey, we can't get rid of the freckles. We have to let Magnifique decide what to do with her. We just get her looking normal." The green one replies.

I've always been horrible with names and I still can't remember what they are. Maybe it's Bubbles and Candy or something like that. For now I just call them the Green, Yellow and Red one.

The Yellow one has asked about 15 times whether or not he can get rid of my freckles. It's not happening dimwit. Rosetta – our mentor – has told me to be patient and kind to my prep team. Because if I don't they can make the preparation for every event completely painful. She went through it when she won her games. She was nasty and mean to her prep team, and they treated her the same way back. They started earlier and went longer than necessary just because Rosetta was a bit of a bitch. After she won she got rid of them of course, and denounced them. It's quite sad really, because now they can't get jobs anymore.

Rosetta also told us not to be modest. All of our modesty was lost as soon as our names were plucked out of that bowl. Her advice helped as well, because the first thing my prep team did was to strip me down.

Everyone always says that Capitol girls enjoy the high life and get makeovers and go to spas and relax. This is NOT relaxing.

I wonder how Indigo is doing. Poor guy cried for hours after the reaping. Fair enough, after the vomit and all. He's nice enough. Black hair and tan, which is completely opposite to me. I'm skinny with straw hair and freckles everywhere. Between us we are kind of like night and day.

On the train we also saw the reapings from the other districts. Which wasn't exactly all that uplifting for either of us. There are some big tributes this year. I mean, the boys from 1 and 2 and 4 could all snap me in half. Then you have the big 7's and the intense looking 3's. It really put the two of us in low spirits last night.

"ow,ow,Ow,OW, OW!" What are you doing now?" I snarl.

"Gluing in new toenails. Obviously." The Yellow one retorts.

"Oh, my apologies." I give her the biggest and fakest smile I have ever given.

They paste these new plastic toenail shells onto the sensitive skin that has been exposed to air for the first time in it's short life. It really, really stings, but I know I have to toughen up. No point being a whiner about it now. If I can't handle this pain, then there is no way that I'm ready for the games. So I breath in and out. In and out. Every now and again I wince at the pain shooting up my leg. Until they eventually finish.

"Done! Perfecto!" Says the Red one.

"Simply marvelous!" Says the yellow one.

The Green one is just sitting there crying before saying "We are just so proud of you." What the hell? I haven't even done anything! Instead of getting all hot headed about it, I simply reply.

"Thanks all of you. You have made me look wonderful."

The Yellow one answers.

"Thanks honey, and remember, if you ever want those nasty freckles off, just give me a call. Now just wait here for Magnifique and we will see you later."

They all trot off and leave me on my lonesome. A mirror. That's all I can think of. I want to see a mirror to see what I look like. Next to me there is a pocket mirror. I open it and look at my reflection. Even though I can only see a small portion of my body I can tell that I am simply shining.

*Knock Knock*

Without giving me time to reply, a young, tall and slender woman rushes through the door yelling at me.

"OH MY GOD! I LOVE YOUR FRECKLES. AREN'T THEY ADORABLE!"

She is wearing six inch black heels and a deep blue dress with blacks stripes descending down it in a parallel fashion. But her most obvious features are the 20 centimetre horns that erupt from her skull in a winding nail type fashion. I'm stunned by fascination and contemplation. How on earth did she get those horns? Magnifique can clearly see me staring.

"Yes they are real." She says. "And yes, they are attached to my skull. Shall we move on?"

"Sorry. I guess you must get that a lot from us tributes."

"More than you can imagine." She smiles.

Now it's down to business.

"So," she says "What's the plan?"

"Pardon?"

"The plan. You know, for your training and The Games. What are you going to do?"

I think about this for around about a minute before replying.

"I…I…I don't have a plan. Rosetta says the best plan sometimes is not to have a plan at all. I guess I'm good at going unnoticed. Maybe that will help me."

I used to be quite good at hide and seek back in District 9. My straw coloured hair, pale skin and light freckles helped me to blend in with all the fields. Hopefully I can do the same in The Games.

Immediately Magnifique replies. "Hmmmm, that seems solid enough."

But before she can say another word, I chime in.

"And what's your plan?" I ask.

She smiles.

"You'll love it." She says. "This year your chariot outfit is going to be great. You're going to be a loaf of bread!" Magnifique raises her hands in excitement and poses like she is selling a new car.

My reaction says it all. But Magnifique can't tell. She is too engrossed in her own idea.

"And what will Indigo be?" I ask.

"Your district partner will be a stick of butter! Isn't it wonderful? I mean what goes better together than bread and butter?" She claps excitedly,

And she almost seemed half normal at first.

Bugger.

**Yay! Halfway through! This chapter was kind of uneventful I think. But it's a change from normal and I enjoyed it. Thanks to everyone that is keeping up to date with this! Another Capitol Life chapter is ahead. It will be District 6's – Maia Flightcraft.**


	14. D6 - Maia

**District 6 – Maia Flightcraft(12)**

Our first dinner in the Capitol. Never in my life have I seen anything as luxurious as what is in front of me. Sure the train trip had meals, good meals. But this is an entire smorgasbord. Roast meat and vegetables, bread, spaghetti, tarts, jams, stuffed quail, cheeses. Anything you want you can just take.

"What's this?" I ask.

"Wine." Replies our mentor. Jared Frame, Victor of the 25th games is young, barely even 17. This is his first year and his nerves are showing. He doesn't know how to act around us.

He points to the wine and says "18 years and older and you can drink it. So I'm sorry Maia."

It looks interesting and I really wish I could try it. The deep red colour, like a blooming rose. The scents of it rise in to the air and fill my nostrils. It doesn't smell like what I imagine. I imagined it would smell like blood. The glorious smell of blood. Especially like when it oozes out of wounds and spills onto the ground. I love the smell of blood and the look of it. I love the sound of the screaming people that it comes out of and I love the trickles and pools it creates.

"It looks like blood." I point out.

"I suppose it does a little bit actually." Replies Jared.

He looks awkward. As if not knowing what to say to me. I've asked him to borrow the tapes of every single previous Hunger Games. I watch them intensely. I rewind the scenes where the tributes die. It's really fascinating. Watching the blood trickle down onto the ground and the life drain from the tributes eyes. This one scene in particular interests me where a girl from 3 has cut an artery in her leg and bleeds out. The screams are glorious. It's not very different to the screams I've grown up with in 6. Watching the daily beatings by the peacekeepers and the torture they can enact with the flick of their fingers.

"Maia. I need to ask you something." It's Jared again.

"You seem to be very…fascinated by the Games. Particularly by the screams and the blood. I hear you watching them. Rewinding over the worst scenes in history and simply laughing. What exactly is your…deal…..with that.?"

I stare him down and smile. The most animalistic smile I can.

"Curiosity killed the cat you know Jared."

Jared, Wing and our escort collectively drop their cutlery and stare at me. Mouths wide open.

"Just leave me to it Jared. I know what the Games are. And I relish the opportunity to drain as much blood out of anyone I get my hands on." They are still shocked. I may only be 12, but that won't stop me from trying to win.

"And that's how you win the games." Wing speaks. For the first time. It's taken him a long while to get over that morphling. But now he's here…. and defending me. I give him a smile. He smiles back at me. I like where our district could head this year.

TRIBUTE PARADE

Some of the tributes this year are pathetic. That 11 girl and the 8 one that's crying. What a complete joke. Some of the others are clearly feeling apprehensive. The 5 girl who is dressed as a metal conductor still looks like she hasn't slept in months. Both 9's look ridiculous. The freckly girl is bread. Which I get. But the boy is butter. Clearly their stylists lost creative control and wanted a themed duo. I suppose I don't look too bad being dressed in leather that has tyre tred etched into it. I look rather cool actually. Wing is also dressed in tight leather with tyre tred marks. I like him. He is down to earth and keeps me entertained. He can live I suppose.

People can probably see that Wing and I could possibly work together. We are one of the most friendly duos here. I spot a couple of other districts that could work together. The 12's – dressed as mine carts- look rather friendly towards each other. So do the 3's. The 9's look cordial and are possibly in cahoots. The 4's look quite flirtatious. I also think that the attractive 1's and the older 7's look like the probably won't be cracking each other's skulls.

Other duo's I can see definitely do not see eye to eye. Clearly the 2 boy thinks that the 2 girl is some kind of joke. The 5's aren't really friendly. The girl as the rod is completely trying to disassociate herself from the tiny and infuriating looking boy. The small 8 girl is crying as her district partner laughs.

"Wing. These tributes look kinda pathetic. Who do you wanna get first once we're there?" I ask him.

He laughs as he turns around. "Well, my little sociopath. I probably find that the most entertaining deaths would come from the dysfunctional 8's and what looks like the overconfident 3's. Although I honestly would love to take down a career and that strong looking freckly ginger 11 as well."

"Is that so," I reply, "Well, my drug addict friend. I agree. Let's go after the 3's and 11's. Watch them carefully during training and see what they're planning. There is nothing better than a good fair fight between districts. And as for the career. I'd love to get my hands on that enormous boy from 2, before he can do too much damage to the rest of us." Wing is nodding. "You know Wing, we have set ourselves quite the task. We want to take down 5 tributes and come out on top. "

Wing answers without hesitation. "Well Maia. Sometimes you've gotta play big to win big. And if it pays off, well then we'll have the support of the Capitol by being the most famous district pairing in the games history."

TRIBUTES TO YOUR STATIONS PLEASE. An announcer beckons. It's time to introduce ourselves to the Capitol. And if they don't remember us now; well I'm sure they will when the Games begin.

**I wrote this late at night, so apologies if it's hard to follow. Maia is really creepy and Wing is like her creepy brother. Definitely the most disturbing pairing of the games. Thanks for all who review and thanks for continuing to read!**

**Question is: How far do you think the crazy pair from Distict 6 will go?**


	15. D1 - Tilver

**District 1 - Tilver Cummings(18)**

Saphira and I arrive at training half an hour early. We are the first ones there as planned. Being from district 1 we thought it was only appropriate to be the first ones there. Plus it gives us a chance to scope out the talent as they exit the elevator doors. Saphira really is just a sweet girl, a bit alternative but definitely not a push over. She has this charm and charisma that oozes out of her and we had already discussed going into today that we would stick together. I tell myself not to get attached to anyone because I know exactly what happens in this Game. I planned on a solo approach. To be a lone wolf in the arena and only have to worry about myself so I wouldn't have to suffer through the deaths of those I may grow close too. It's happened once before. Two years ago, a girl at the academy 'Brill' volunteered. We grew close and bonded over 4 years of working together. She trusted the wrong people and paid for it, dying slowly at the hands of the leader boy from 2. After that I learnt what true loneliness was. My mother called it my 'beserker' mode. I fall into a kind of trance and can only concentrate on one thing. Back then that thing was training, and I became unstoppable. My conscious mind was hidden and my beserker mode took over. I never want to go back there. That is why I can't get too close to these people.

Saphira has convinced me that at least for the first couple of days we need to see who's left and know where the threats are and how to off them. Learn their strengths and weaknesses.

As more tributes file into the room I scope out the ones we discussed earlier to talk to first. The enormous threatening looking 2 boy, but not his pretty partner.

Both of the 4's look strong and capable as they walk in. Tall and lean and muscular, both with brown hair except the girl with blue eyes, the boy with brown. They look like they belong on the cover of a magazine, rather than competing in games like these.

Lastly we eye off the last we wanted in our little pack. To replace the 2 girl we have decided to go after the boy from 7. Tall, but skinny, with great muscle definition; you can tell he has been swinging an axe for his whole life, so he must have great hand-eye coordination as well. More to the point; by adding in an outlier to our pack, we'll seem more accepting and will attract those sponsors that usually enjoy betting against us.

We split. The head trainer has told us to get started. I swerve my way through 24 other tributes to get to those I want. Saphira is going to the 4's and I'm going to the 7. When we get the 5 of us together, the giant from 2 will have no choice but to approach us, and he will quickly work out that not everything will be going his way. Veering past the small 5 boy I grab 7 by his arm.  
>"Hey!" I say in a friendly voice. He turns around.<p>

"Ummmm, Hi?" He seems a bit uncomfortable. I bet he didn't expect this and had his own plans in order. His district partner stops in her tracks and turns around to stare at me.

"Can I help you?" She asks. She is smart. I can tell. Obviously has a plan set into motion. So I plan to ruin it now.

"Not you thanks very much. I was talking to him." I point at the tall 7 boy.

"Tilver Cummings. 1." I hold out my hand as a sign of good will. He takes it.

"Cain Kasidy. 7. Nice to meet you."

"You too Cain. Now, straight to business. My district partner and I want you with us. We want you, both of the 4's, the large 2 boy and the two of us. What do you say." I smile at him and give him a nudge in the gut.

He's staring at me with an intense look. I thought this would be a quick answer from the guy. Obviously not, because 3 minutes later I'm still in front of him waiting for a reply and in the background all I can hear is his annoying district partner telling him to just turn around and go with her.

"Sure." He says to me before turning around.

"Aniya, do what you were going to do. We'll talk tonight OK?" She turns around begrudgingly and heads off to the climbing station.

"Ok then. Follow me." I say.

Cain follows me over to where Saphira and the boy from 4 are standing. She clearly got to them quick.

"Hi." I hold my hand out to shake his. "Tilver Cummings - District 1." I say.

"Oh and this is Cain Kasidy from 7. I assume Saphira has filled you in on this and it comes as no surprise." I add.

Cain extends his hand out to the 4 boy. Cain is almost 2 inches taller than him, but the 4 boy has at least 20 pounds on him.

"Nickel Parks." He says. "District 4. As you can see my District partner is not with us. Naina said she would prefer to work solo, and as much as I tried to convince her otherwise, she won't listen."

"Well that's her loss." I say.

From the corner of my eye I can see 2 sets of eyes staring at us. On the left the girl from 2 stares intently. Her platinum blonde hair and almost albino skin make it hard for her to blend in. I can tell, even from my peripheral vision she knows she's not welcome. So she turns around and skulks off to the far end of the hall. On my right I see the enormous boy from two. He is doing the opposite to his partner. He is coming right towards us with exceptionally large strides.

He stops in front of the 4 of us and coughs.

"Lanius Marais. 2. I'm your new leader." He says "Follow me." We all look at each other. No one wants to get on his bad side, better to have him with us than against us. So we all follow him over to the sword fighting station. The girl from 5 and the 3's were here. But as soon as they saw us coming, they left. So the girl from 5 is with the 3's. I scan the room to take in more. The 12's are together. As are the 9's. The scrawny looking kid from 5 seems to have taken to the pair from 10 and with them is the girl from 8. That's all I can see from here, so I turn around.

Lanius is standing in the station instructing the instructor not to give him any leeway, and he tells him if he does, then that'll be the last time he operates a machine, apart from the one that will be keeping him alive. The rest of our group is standing on the outside watching him flex his muscles and swivel his sword through multiple targets like they are nothing. For his size he is so nimble and quick.

Cain is to my right and Nickel to my left, while Saphira has taken up residence at the second sword arena. Nickel speaks first "He looks like 20 pounds of potatoes in a 5 pound sack."

I snigger. Cain then speaks up. "I think more like a near intelligent rock."

"Well you know," Nickel replies. "I've never seen a rock dismember a dummy before."

"Now you have front row seats." I say. We all laugh. Lanius turns towards us. Fire in his eyes and steam roaring from his nose.

"You look like a rabid dog in a Sauna." Roars Nickel. This time the three of us and the instructor burst out into tears of laughter.

Maybe this won't be too bad after all, I think.

That is until Lanius picks up the sword training instructor and hurls him 20 feet into the air. He lands with a crack. Lanius turns to us in a fit of rage. But he knows that we would only need two of us to take him down. So we all stand there still grinning.

"Calm down stallion." I say. "Save it for the games."

**There is so much more to write about in the training sessions. There is more that I wanted to add. But I thought that the natural ending was where I left it. Tilver is interesting. Originally a lone wolf, but has defected to an alliance. The question is.**

**Do you think Tilver will stick with his alliance, or will he end up a lone wolf? Next up will be Alex Alberta from District 3.**


	16. D3 - Alex

**District 3 – Alex Alberta(15)**

A few interesting things have happened already today. First we had the big group form pretty quickly. Both District 1's, and the 2,4,7 boys. Secondly we had the smallies team up which included the 10s, the 8 girl and the 5 boy. Thirdly the girl from 5 – Solaria approached us about possibly teaming up. Not exactly a fighter, but apparently very adept at healing. Solaria is interesting. When Arica and I first saw her she almost looked like a zombie. She has mid-length black hair and quite a fit body frame but her most obvious feature are her bloodshot eyes. At first Arica and I were quite hesistant. We had decided it would be just the two of us. I mean we both have backgrounds in weaponising ourselves, so it was only natural to stick together. Solaria on the other hand is not a natural at any type of weaponry. In some ways I think that's good for the 3 of us. The weaker we look the less we will be targeted. Those big burly volunteers are not going to be looking at the pair from three and the tired girl from 5 doing any damage.

Two other interesting things happened later in our first day of training. The pair from 6 keep eyeing us off almost like they are watching us. I've seen it more than a few times and have brought it to the attention of both of the girls. I don't want to be making enemies in training and putting a target on my own back. The other strange thing occurred with the girl from 7 – Aniya. Aniya had been walking around the whole day talking to a lot of different people. Before she approached us I saw her conversing with the smallies group, the pair from 9 and the 11 boy. I don't like that. If someone in the games is too well liked by a whole bunch of people that are unwilling to kill them. Then who will be the one to stab her in the back?

She briefly explained that her and her partner are sticking together even though he is with the volunteers. She just assumes it's to get information and to keep them away from her. What the 2 of them wanted initially was to pair up with Solaria, the 12's and the 11 boy. But since Solaria is with us. She has had no choice but to rearrange herself. What she offered was a truce to begin with. That if we see eachother in need we will help. If we call for help or choose to band together, then we will. It seemed like a good enough strategy to take the heat off our backs from the infiltrated volunteer group. Hopefully Aniya can work her magic on her district partner and convince them to stay away from us. After Aniya was finished with us, she looked up and glanced around. She spotted the duo from 12 in the distance walking over at the pool section about to begin their first swimming lessons. With almost a panicked look she sprinted over to them and began her spiel.

"I don't like her strategy." I say to whoever will listen to me. "She's running around the entire facility talking to everyone. That's bad news."

"Agreed," says Solaria. "But if it works out, then we may just make it through the bloodbath with exactly the people we want intact."

"Anyway, where should we head off to now? I think I have enough plant facts rooted into my brain to last me till the end of my days." Arica chimes in. We can see that Arica has been eyeing off the knives station. In the past 4 hours she has asked us to go there maybe 8 times.

"Knives? Possibly." Says Arica

"Okay." Solaria and I give in.

We bustle over to the station. The volunteer group has been here already today, so they won't be coming back for a while. I'm actually quite excited. Growing up I always had something to do with knives. You see, when I was 8, I was taken in by a peacekeeper. He said it was to 'clean me up'. Which in hindsight was probably a good thing. After my parents died I did live just well…..around for a while. Anyway, so he taught me how to defend myself if I ever got in to trouble. I don't think he was training me for The Hunger Games. But I'm sure it will come in handy at this point. I'm very grateful for all he did for me, and if I make it back then I can finally return the favour to the man that helped me grow up and become something better than nothing.

There is every knife and sharp object you could dream of here. I glance over at Arica and Solaria. Solaria looks pale and visibly uncomfortable. Arica on the other hand looks like she is in Utopia. She is walking around touching the tips of all the knives and swords whilst muttering to herself. She picks up one from its' rack and walks over to the throwing target, takes a deep breath, moves forward, and in one brisk moment, moves like a dancer with flow and grace. The knife releases from her hand and hits smack bang in the centre of the target around 20 metres away. The instructor looks astonished. His jaw dangles on the ground. Solaria and I act almost the same way.

"Luck?" I ask Arica.

She turns around and gives us a little bit of a smirk.

"Beginners luck. I think you're right."

Now it's my turn. I grab a smaller looking knife that is almost shaped like a mini sabre and turn back to where the targets are. Unlike Arica I don't feel comfortable shooting from the 20 metre range, so I move closer. The instructor gives me some finer points. I have done this once or twice, but I'm certainly not proficient. With a breath in and one fluid movement, I take aim, step forward and thrust my arm out and release the knife.

THUD. It hits, probably 10 centimetres off of the centre. Looking around I see the instructor smile at me and nod. Arica smirks and Solaria is again dumbfounded.

"Well,"she says. "It would appear I've chosen the right people to align with."

**Sorry for the lack of updates! I've worked almost 55 hours this week, and I'm just exhausted. I'll be away until Thursday relaxing at the beach and plan to do a fair bit of writing there. So look out for updates when I'm back. As for this chapter I'm not sure If I liked how it turned out. I think my character development was a bit off.**

**Thanks for reading! Remember to review. ISTEED**


	17. D4 - Naina

**District 4 – Naina Williams(17)**

I didn't volunteer and I don't want to get caught up in that ticking time bomb of an alliance. Nickel did try to recruit me for it, but I don't really know how to fight, and if it came down to us being the only ones left, then I surely know who would probably be the first to go. So instead of teaming up with anyone, I've decided to go it alone. I prefer it that way anyway. No distractions, no arguing, no worrying about anyone else but numero uno.

Day 2 of training is different from day 1. Day 1 I decided to actually train. To garner skills in anything that I thought will be necessary to win. Naturally I avoided the fishing, swimming and net making stations. Instead I concentrated on climbing. This year the focus at the climbing station seems to be with scaling walls and tall flat objects, rather than climbing trees. I'm not too bad at it actually. Within the hour I had scaled a wall that was 10 metres high and had barely any handholds. All the hours of swimming in 4 had prepared me physically, and all the hours studying at school had prepared me mentally. It was pretty easy to figure out the geometry of what I needed to do. Geometry was one of my favourite subjects at school.

I also learnt how to make fire and tie knots yesterday and I attempted the poisonous foods station last.

Today I just plan on learning one weapon and then I will reflect on everything I've learnt. If I reflect and go over everything I have done already, then there is a higher chance I will remember it for the games. Plus, then I know what I will have to revisit and work on again. It also gives me time to just observe the other tributes – you know, who to stay away from and who it doesn't matter if I get close to; that is, apart from the obvious ones. The obvious ones usually tend to stick together. It's the other singles and duo's that I don't want to run into without knowing anything about them.

I start the day with the spears. This is the weapon I have chosen. I'm familiar with how they are used in principle. My dad is a fisherman and quite frequently uses spears, although I've never been allowed to touch. 'Too dangerous', he would always say. Thanks Dad, that's prepared me so much for this. The instructor teaches me the basics of blocking and defending before going into the attacking thrusts. Physically I can endure this for hours, but I have the feeling that isn't the point. The point is to kill your opponent with it as fast as possible and move on. This weapon station does make me think of home, and how far away from everyone I love I am. Nickel, who I genuinely like has his dad here. Even though his dad has been a little standoffish I can tell that at least Nickel doesn't feel hopeless and alone like me. It pains me a bit every time I look at other tributes together to think that I'll have to do everything by myself. Everything. It's a difficult thing to accomplish, and the thought of how many people there are here really eats away at your optimism. But I try to suppress those feelings. What would my parents think, and my brother and sister, if I thought that I had no hope and just gave in?

After the lesson with spears I sit alone in a corner, revisiting every station I have been to with my mind, especially I go over my knots and traps. If I have to have a plan, that would be it. Get a spear and rope, make some traps, get some kids and get rid of them once they're caught. Which kids do I think would be silly enough to get themselves into a situation like that? And which ones do I actually want caught in front of me.

Well clearly I wouldn't mind offing that boy from 8 who is just a bullying his poor district partner. I think I could kill the 9's. I mean, there is nothing about them that screams threat, or take notice of me. They are just completely average, and if you are completely average, then I think I could definitely be a better victor. The girl from 11 with her tight braids and dark skin would be a different matter. Imagine if she was the one I caught. There is no way I could kill her, she is no threat to me, she's only 13!. Her district partner maybe. He is strong, freckly like the 9 girl, but with fiery red hair. He seems strong too. Which to me means big trouble. The 12's, they seem extremely likeable and have proven that in training. They get along with absolutely everyone – except for the volunteer group. I have a feeling that if they were separated or lost, anyone that finds them would probably take them in, rather than kill them.

I lean forward on my bench in the corner and rest the palms of my hands on my eye sockets and rub. Tears are starting to form. I don't like thinking about any of this at all. Never in a million years did I think I would be contemplating which child would be better to kill, it's not exactly a game I play frequently. This is absolute horse shit. To think some government has locked me in an inescapable death trap and forcing me to kill is sick. If I had it my way, District 4 would be completely out of the games. We are fair people, we don't judge, we work hard. Why do we deserve this? I tell you one thing though. If I ever get my chance to spoil The Capitols fun, to ruin their plans, then I sure as hell will take it. I bet they have already eyed off their winner, it would bring me the greatest pleasure to figure out who it would be and get rid of them straight away. I don't care if that means certain death, because at least the person that comes home won't be another puppet in their pocket.

I certainly will not be a puppet in their pocket. I'll act like it until the games begin. No point putting an unnecessary target on my back. But as soon as I'm in the arena, I can use everything that I have grown up with; my integrity, my honour, my strength and my wits to use it against these tyrants.

**I like Naina, she is strong and smart, so thank you for submitting her. 1 more training scene to go. Not long till the games now. I hope everyone feels their tribute has been at least introduced into the story. If you feel that your character isn't getting enough of a spotlight, then let me know and I'll work them in some more. **

**Thanks for continuing to read! Don't forget to review! Isteed**


	18. D8 - Harold

**District 8 – Harold Hogger(15)**

The more people that are scared of me in this game, then the more people that will leave me alone, that's my strategy. Intimidation and threats left right and center, target those before they target you. All those little girls and their friends, they're going to be too scared to come anywhere near me in that arena. Which is good. Targets in motion are: obviously that weasel Lia from my district. That girl from 11 – Kaila I think her name is, Ivy from District 10 and the little girl from 6. If I can subdue them, well then anyone who they are with will not come running after me. Why? Because their partner will be too scared. Sure, it's risky, they might decide enough is enough and come after me anyway. But in my last 15 years of being the biggest and toughest guy my age around District 8 no one has ever stood up to me.

I stand behind Lia in the line waiting for our turn at the obstacle course. The great thing about being in the same District is that we get to do absolutely everything together and her resolve has almost been utterly annihilated. Nowadays she spends most of her days crying, and I can't let her out of that rut, otherwise she might gain confidence and try a move against me. So she needs to stay there.

"Lia," I tease. "You're the first one I get." I continue in a sing-song voice.

"Then it's all your little friends, starting with your friends from 10, then the little girl I saw you talking with from 11. Boom…Boom…..Boom…Boom, 1,2,3,4, dead, dead, dead, dead."

Lia shudders, but in front of all the other tributes she has been focused not to crumble. Which is strange for her. At school she would crumble like a cookie. Maybe she thinks she has a chance, and that being weak in front of the other tributes will in turn put a big target on her back. Never mind, I see her crying as soon as we leave here anyway.

I elbow her in the back, like a blunt knife piercing in the folds of her scapula.

"That's where it will be Lia. Right there." I snigger

Ahead of the both of us is the obstacle course. First you have a tire swing followed by a high rope course, then fireman pole yourself down to the bottom, make your way under what looks like an enormously heavy net. Climb a series of ladders back up and then monkey bars back to the beginning. So far the best have been the 4's. The big 2 boy – Lanius I think his name is, didn't do very well. Sure, he is strong enough, but I think his body weight and sheer size was a massive hindrance. The tiny girl from 6 with the green eyes did it pretty quick, so did her District partner. Cain, the lanky 7 boy and his district partner Aniya did average. I have tried to steer clear of her. At the beginning I thought I might aim some of my bullying tactics at her, but ever since Cain joined that volunteer group I thought better than it. You would have to be almost blind to see that they both seem very aware and are clearly, even though not in training, talking and working very closely together.

Lia does the course next. She basically fully jumps the tire swing and then doesn't even hesitate on the high ropes. Everyone else so far has hesitated. Not meaning that they are scared of heights, just the fact it is so natural to hesitate. She flutters like a falling leaf down the fireman's pole and her small size makes her quite maneuverable through the rope crawl. After, she climbs effortlessly up to the top before making her way like a floating cloud past the monkey bar obstacle.

The trainer stops the stop watch and looks impressed. She walks over to the scoreboard, grabs Lia's photo and sticks it at the top of the leaderboard list. Stunned, that's all I can say. I knew her size would help her, but I certainly did not think she would beat everyone, even the Ninja boy from 4. She turns to me and pokes her tongue out. The little twerp. In slow motion I put my two hands together and pretend I'm snapping someone's neck and stare at her deep into her soul.

Now I'm next and have to follow that. Pressure. I have to perform well now. I'm quite a stocky person, not lean and tall, more plump and short. Whatever, I can totally do this.

"GO!" The instructor yells.

I run across to the tire swing and unlike Lia, I need to use the hook to grab the tire to swing across to the other side. I quickly grab it and hang on ready to jump off at any point. Ok. Now that I'm on the other side I have to face these high ropes. I hesitate slightly at the start of the course. They are positioned so you have a rope at your feet and then 2 wobbly ropes at either side of you waist height to hold on to. It's like a very wobbly narrow bridge. Slowly I creep myself across. Once or twice I falter and my body hurls itself at a 45 degree angle before I regain my position. 2 metres left. Thank God, the hardest part is over, now is the easy bit. All I have to do is grab on to this pole and make my way down to the bottom. Don't even know why they called this an 'obstacle', it's barely a 4 metre drop. Bending over, I take hold of the pole and launch myself off the edge.

Unluckily, I don't think I had a tight enough grip and my hands and whole body are detached from the pole and I'm free-floating in mid air.

The next think I know I'm on the ground, face to the floor. When I landed I heard a sharp crack and now I know what has happened. I touch my nose slowly and it is completely off center and projecting out to the left side of my face whilst bleeding erratically.

Hurriedly, medics gather around me and hurl me onto a cart and wheel me out of the training room. Everything is happening so quickly. The last thing I heard from the training area was shouts of laughter from all the other tributes. Well, I'll show them. I bet you an arm and a leg that is was bloody Lia that did this to me. She probably…. I don't know…..greased up the pole on her way through. Originally I had no intention of killing her, just scaring her off and getting everyone away from me. But this time she has pissed me off. You want to mess with the beast, then you get the horns. She is definitely first on my hit list.

**Harold, what a dickhead. Okay, the question for this chapter is:**

**Who do you think will last longer in the Arena, Harold or Lia?**

**Thanks for reading again. Remember to review! Isteed**


	19. D5 - Solaria

**District 5 – Solaria Atom(17)**

Training didn't prepare me. During those days when we were there I didn't actually think about what I was going to show anyone. Now I'm here and my mentor told me to show off what I learnt in training and anything special that I have up my sleeve, and in all honesty I did not exactly plan ahead. I was not good with knives, I was average with swords and above average at most of non-weapon stations. Which sucks for my score because I have been told that those that prove their worth with a weapon reap the rewards with their scores. I know Alex and Arica will do well, they are pretty much decent at everything.

My last attempt at showing off my skills would be my healing capabilities. I mean, I did grow up in a hospital. I was taken in by the staff at a young age and raised there. From that point it was learn and work or I'd be sent off to fend for myself. So I learnt everything there is to know about healing. One of the negatives about it is that I worked myself so much I have constant bags under my eyes, never sleep steadily and sometimes walk like a living zombie. However, I can sew an arm on as a leg and a leg on as an arm. No need for studying it either as I've seen it and fixed it all first hand. The skill could come in useful in the games, with the right equipment. I'm no naturopath, but I did seem to do well in the natural remedies station also. And as I sit here now with people being called to show their best one by one I think of something that I can show them.

Maybe start with a weapon, such as swords and show them that I can do at least a little bit of damage. Then I should grab a dummy and make it bleed, fix is up and sew the legs as arms and arms as legs in my little time without killing the dam thing.

"District 5, Solaria Atom, please proceed through to your individual session." An announcer says over the loudspeaker system.

I look around the room to the people I have been friendly with over the past few days. Ash and Kelli, Aniya, Richy and Ivy, Lia and to an extent Dorian. The others like the 9 duo and Cain and the horrible Harold I don't really have anything to do with. Although Aniya did mention something about Cain and teaming up and don't kill him straight away. Not that I planned on killing anyone straight away.

So now I walk through the 2 metre high automatic metal doors in to the training room. As I walk slowly to the assigned dot where we stand to introduce ourselves I take in my surroundings looking for what I need. To my back left is the weapons. So I'll do that quickly and then use the sword to dismember a dummy carefully with killing it by not rupturing major arteries and veins by tying them off first. Then to my right is the first aid cross, that's where I will need to gather other medical supplies. Obviously I wont have time to reattach everything with a working blood supply, so they will fall off over time, but as long as the dummy doesn't die and I get everything attached where I want it, it should work out all right.

My feet pause over the dot and I announce myself.

"Solaria Atom, District 5."

My only acknowledgement is from this years Gamemaker Roman, he nods his head and signals for me to start.

Now I rush over and grab a sword and head towards the line of dummies in the center of the room. Some of them automate as a practice partner. I head to one of the automated ones and turn it on to level 5. Average. For 1 and a half minutes I dodge and swing the sharp but leveled sword around without dying and killing the dummy in not too shabby of a time.

Good, that's done.

Now the easy work starts. I grab another non-automated dummy from the opposite stand. Above me I can see a number of the party staring at me as I wield the same sword in my hand. I start my first cut trying to find the brachial plexus and tie it all off. Shit. Tying it off.

I look up in alarm and hurriedly run over to the first aid camp. I grab suture material and some bandages and cotton buds to mop up the blood. I also grab some of the basic drugs like local anesthetics and topical steroids to reduce blood flow. If I had time and equipment I would put the patient under a full sleep. Now I head back over and continue my incisions after the injections are in. I Work at a flying rate, but make sure I don't cut anything necessary for life. Luckily these dummies have an exact human blood anatomy and I know what I am doing. I am assuming they left out nerves because I can't see any.

In the next 4 minutes I have completely dismembered only 1 arm and 1 leg and reattached them oppositely. It was going to be tough to make the others in time, so I only did these 2, but did them perfectly. Moreover, the dummy hasn't died, I know this because there is only 1 death count on the monitor above my head, and that was for the sword kill.

As I finish I leave my dummy on the ground, take a small bow and walk over to the exit. As I leave I can't help but overhear some of what the Gamemakers say.

"Did she just dismember that dummy and reattach it in 4 minutes without killing the darned thing."

Or

"Well, if I was in the games, I would definitely want her on my side."

Good, that's exactly what I wanted to hear.

**Sorry about the lack of updates, again I am too busy for my own good. Will try to update again soon.**

**Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!**

**This chapters question is. Do you think Solaria will need to use her skills in the arena?**


	20. D11 - Kaila

**District 11 – Kaila Natleson(13)**

I think I did a pretty good job going undetected. This whole time I have been trying to draw attention away from myself. There is no point putting a target on my back, plus no one will want to kill a girl who they don't even remember the name or face of. My individual session was not great though. Going unnoticed did not exactly help me prepare for it. I had been trying so hard not to draw attention to myself that I don't think I learnt enough to even get a score from those gamemakers. Plus I don't even think they saw me, I'm tiny and skinny, even though my stomach has grown since being in The Capitol I still only manages half a plate of food every night. Yes, I did cry when I got back to my room. So what? I cry all the time. I'm just an emotional person, I cry at the drop of the hat, and being in The Hunger Games isn't exactly the perfect environment for someone like me.

So if the Gamemakers actually forget about me what score will I get? A 0 – dear God I hope not. Hopefully like a 3 or so. I think that would be good. I would probably cry for a good hour or so for anything less than a 3.

Dorian doesn't look worried. Since we arrived in The Capitol he has been like the older brother I never had. I love his ginger hair and his perfectly aligned freckles. He is probably the nicest person that I could've been stuck with. Another positive is that he said he would take care of me in the arena. Which is good. He is strong and athletic and could probably give even some of those in the volunteer group a run for their money. So as long as I stick with him I should be safe. He also has a couple of people in mind to get together with in the arena. Although he hasn't told them about me yet I highly doubt they would reject us considering how strong he is. They probably won't even notice I'm there anyway. Only a handful of tributes even know my name.

Dorian and I and the rest of our District 11 group is gathered on the couch at the moment watching the daily news from around Panem. A fire in 7 wiped out a crop and there is a shortage of lumber. Also the rise in prices of clothing has been due to a strike in District 8 that they are just only getting control of now.

We continue to watch. I like getting a glimpse into the lives of the other Districts. I saw the sea for the first time in a newscast from 4 about how this years fishing haul has been the best in a decade. I've never seen the sea for real. I'd love too one day. I bet it would be beautiful.

Just like that the news finishes and another voice booms over the speaker system in an excitable fashion. Pauly Partridge, the host for The Hunger Games is now on our screen in a bright green leotard and a backwards cap on. I'm not surprised. Tight fitting is the fashion this year in The Capitol. I hope it doesn't translate in to The Games.

"Well, welcome everybody." Pauly says in his irritating voice.

"After our Gamemakers assessed every tribute this year in their own individual session they have finished tabulating their final training scores. Now remember these scores show us just how much of a chance your favourite has of become The 26th Annual Hunger Games Victor!. Let's begin."

Pauly smiles and continues. I'm not sure if I want to hear the scores or not, they don't really matter to me. But I tune in anyway.

The District 1 girl scored an 8 and the boy a 10.

District 2 had the girl score a 6 – which was predictable considering she was not a volunteer. Her big district partner scored a 10 though.

Surprisingly the 3 boy got a 7 and the girl an even higher 8!

The 4 girl scored a 7 and the athletic boy a 9.

From District 5 the small boy got a 4, whilst the girl a more than respectable 7.

Now it's all starting to jumble together in to one mess and I'm losing my concentration. But I do manage to hear the rest.

The 6's got 7's, which is suprising, and the 7's got 6's, even the tall boy. That's funny.

The 8's got 5's.

The 9 boy a 6 and the girl a 4.

Ivy – the one girl I actually did get a chance to talk to. We actually get along well, got a 5 and her older district partner a 6.

Moment of truth. I see my name on the screen and a flashing 2 pops up on to the screen. Oh no! That's below the crying threshold. Everyone turns to me. I'm not crying just yet. I'll hold off until my room.

Dorian flashes up next and manages an 8.

They finish with the likeable 12's who both manage 6's.

Pauly Partridge speaks up again.

"Well, isn't that exciting everyone. No huge scores this year, but a heck of a lot of middle ground. And as you can see from the odds checker in front of you the pack is still led by Lanius Marais, with Tilver Cummings a close second. Cain Kassidy from District 7 has dropped several spots, including below Solaria Atom from 5. And as we head down our list, in the middle we have Indigo from District 9, who ranks just above both District 6 and 12. Lastly, rounding out the bottom of the barrel are Lia Davidson who moved up from last position, followed by Isabelle Roe from 9, then Ivy Caverly from 10, and dead last Kaila Natleson District 11.

I can't believe I'm last. No one will be rooting for me. No one will be sending me gifts in the arena. No one.

"Don't worry Kaila," says Dorian. "Sometimes the smallest of us turn out to be the biggest threats." His bright red face lights up and his dimples turn his face into a soothing presence.

I smile back at Dorian superficially, but on the inside I'm counting down the moments in my life until I have a knife flying into my back.

Well, I really hope he is right.

**Kaila, probably the smallest tribute we have. This now leads us on to interviews next chapter. First interview will be with the big brute Lanius Marais from District 2 – another of our careers. **

**This chapter was a lot of added behind the scenes stuff, but I tried to make it about Kaila and her personality as well. **

**Thanks for reading and remember to review! Thanks to those who are reviewing it really makes my day!**

**Only 5 more to introduce before the games. **

**Question for this chapter: From what you have read so far – who do you think are most likely to be bloodbath tributes?**

**Isteed.**


	21. D2 - Lanius

**District 2 – Lanius Marais(18)**

The group this year is too big in my opinion. There is 5 of us whereas I would prefer 3. I am fully aware that those numbers could very easily be cut down, but I don't trust the number 5. There is too many variables with that number, too many side conversations and paranoia that surrounds it. I don't trust anyone because of it. Not Cain, not Saphira, not Tilver and especially not Nickel. Nickel just seems untrustworthy to me, he goes around having all of these conversations with people in our group and then never discloses the topic with me – the leader. Which is fishy.

Even though we aren't in the arena yet, the mind games have already begun. My mentor Gemini told me not to get stressed or paranoid, as it makes you act without reason. She is very right. But It's hard to maintain composure, especially for someone as hot-headed as myself. Usually I have no room for judgment and I go around and knock out anyone in my road. That's exactly how my life has been so far.

When I was in training for the games back in 2, I was jumped by a crew of 5 others in my class when I was 16. They tried to beat me and pin me to the ground. They shot a tranquilizer in to my thigh and ran at me. Luckily I am not a pushover and was the best in my class, so those guys were destroyed. But they were my friends, and I never learnt to trust fully ever again; especially trust a group of 5, the number that burned me last time. More to the point, these guys are trained hard core – well not Cain. But the other 3 were the best their districts could find, and they could see me as their biggest threat, and with 3 fully trained people against me in the arena, I could be gone early. That's why I prefer a smaller group. That vision may come to fruition early in the games.

Right now though I need to concentrate on my interview with Pauly Partridge. The 24 of us are lined up in a row backstage. I am wearing a tweed suit that my stylist created. Throughout the suit flashes of iron and steel shine off at different angles. Tanya, who is next to me, is wearing something of a similar fashion, a dress that stops halfway down her legs. The dress is a checkered pattern of yellow fabric and steel and iron, like a yellow chainmail dress you could say. It must be heavy. Tanya should not be representing our District. She is an absolute abomination to District 2. We should be fit and strong-willed, whereas I feel she is somewhat ill-focused and distraught. Don't get me wrong, I have grown to like the girl. She is funny and sweet and attractive, but she is only another obstacle in the road towards me winning this thing. And that's all she can be, just another obstacle.

Saphira and Tilver kick off the interviews first. Saphira is wearing a blue dress embedded with all kinds of jewels. She is trying to play the hard-ass card. She did score an 8 in training so is legitimate competition. She has the slender figure of someone with great physical technique who would quite quickly counter your entire body weight and use it against you. Pauly asks her why she thinks she will win. Saphira responds by saying "At the moment I'm guaranteed till 5 and that's when the social politics really begin. Not only am I physically capable, but I feel I am more than capable of social manipulation as well."

Ding Ding Ding – alarm bells go off in my head. Saphira is already planning to off me. Never has she directly spoken to me about social dynamics of our group, which tells me right now that she has spoken to others and I am not a part of her plans. Which means she won't be a part of mine. I may not exactly be the most social person in the world. But I can see straight through what that is and I am livid.

Saphira takes her seat and I'm glaring at her. She looks over at me and gives me a satisfied wink. What on earth is that? Does she have a plan for me? Saphira is wishy-washy and I don't like it. Tilver is next up on stage. Tilver is a very tough nut to figure out and scored a 10 in training, he is second behind me in terms of odds to win and is a legitimate threat to me. I like the guy, he is somewhat of a loner and I get the feeling that his cogs are always turning. He is the one I will be watching most intently; who he talks to, where his eyes wander, and I will try to read him to see what he is thinking at all times.

When asked why he will win the games Tilver answers. "Because I will Pauly."

Which I find a much more trustworthy and competitive answer than Saphira's.

Tanya is next, and she awkwardly bumbles her way through the encounter without really making any type of impression. Her answer to why she will win is "Because if you want a true survivor as your Victor, then you're looking at her right now."

Pauly calls me on to the stage next. I have been tutored for this moment for a while now.

"Sit down Lanius please. Now the question I have been meaning to ask you is how did you get so big?"

The audience erupts into laughter. I however don't smile. I have been instructed to not make friends with The Capitol, that they like the silent strong type, and that this year I am the one that fills that gap.

"Genetics Pauly, just genetics." A few giggle emerge from the crowd, but only a few.

"Okay Lanius, appraise the other tributes for me. I mean, you have had a chance to watch them all and see what they do in training. Anyone stand out in particular?"

"Well Pauly, I have distinguished three groups this year. You have the strong type. Which includes myself, Tilver and Saphira and also the 11 boy and both from District 3 for example. Then you have the charismatic ones, like the 12's and Nickel from 4 could probably fit in there as well. In category three you have the weaklings and cannon fodder, like the small girls or the lad from 5. Of course there is some overlapping Pauly, but that is my general appraisal of the situation.

"Well Lanius, I must say that is a very thorough list you have. Although, some might say you could possibly be underestimating a few of your fellow competitors?"

I think about this before replying. "I don't think so Pauly, everyone here pales in comparison to myself."

The conversation continues for a while before he asks me the final question. Why I will win.

"Pauly. My victory will be swift and it will be honest. Brought about by blood, not words."

And that is exactly how I plan this thing will go.

**Lanius Marais everyone. One of the biggest competitors this year. He is very aware of everything, but also a bit paranoid.**

**4 more to go, then on to the games. Next up is Sam Buckwood from District 5. **

**Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!**

**Isteed.**


	22. D5 - Sam

**District 5 – Sam Buckwood(14)**

Everyone else has been so good! No duds yet. The lowest on the totem pole would be Tanya from District 2, but even she has the looks to pull through at least some support. The District 4 girl was very flirtatious and has the girl next door looks, while the boy was very, very charismatic and charming. Nickel I think his name was. The 3's had their scores to boast about and they at least look like they could do some damage, even the big boy from District 2 sung their praises in a backwards kind of way. Solaria, who went before me, also got to brag about her 7 and talked about why she always looks tired, joking with Pauly about a walking Zombie, she even rose to her feet and did a zombie walk. How am I supposed to compete with these people? I'm smart, I know that, but plenty of these other people are just as smart, if not smarter than me. I can't run, I can barely hold a knife and I'm really not confident at all. The only saving grace to what could be a very quick Hunger Games for me, is my little alliance I have going on. Richy and Ivy from 10, and Lia from 8 and I have some sort of alliance. Aniya from 7 also feels like she could be a part of that alliance and bring in her tall partner. The 12's and 11's could also act as fringe members in some situations, however we would prefer not as the group we felt could be too large. We approached Indigo and Isabelle from 9, but they seemed pretty set with the 2 of them. Same goes for both from 6, they seem to be by themselves.

I can't exactly talk about that in front of everyone here though. I don't want word getting around that nearly half the people in The Games don't plan to kill me on sight, because that paints a big old target on my back.

Solaria is still on stage. As nice as she comes across to everyone in The Capitol, she has been really standoffish towards me, almost in a silent bullying type way. I don't know what it is. Whether I remind her of someone she knows, whether I talk too much, or whether she deems me insignificant. It may be the third I assume. She must feel like I am no use to her in these games, and that's fine. But if she comes running in to my alliance and demanding protection, then I will treat her the same way as she has been treating me this past week, and that is I will completely ignore her. It'll either be her or me. I don't care if my pride gets in my way.

In my real life I would do no such thing. But this isn't real life, this is life and death. If she wasn't smart enough to get in with me when she had the chance, then so be it. The Games definitely changes people. I can feel myself becoming a more cut-throat person with slowly failing moral codes. Everyone here has become competition, and I think everyone here is thinking the exact same way.

I snap out of my inner-thinking zone by a loud voice and a cheer.

"Saaaaaaaaaam Buckwoooooood!" Pauly is enthusiastically calling me to the stage.

My outfit is rather cool, and I give my stylist complete credit for that. I am wearing a maroon suit with a long cape. The cape is like an animated movie and water cascades down from my neck until it reaches the ground and billows on the edges of the cape like white spray evaporating in to the morning light signaling our Districts hydroelectricity.

"Sam, Sam, Sam. That is quite a get-up you have going on."

"Ahah, thanks Pauly, all credit to my stylist Ramona, she did a fantastic job. I must say I almost had a 'blackout' when I saw it." The crowd bursts in to laughter at my pun.

"Oh Sam, that was good," continues Pauly, "now, The Games, clearly we have seen some almighty competitors pass before you already tonight. What is your take on everything? Your chances? Your strategy? Anything really."

"Good question Pauly. First off I have to say that I really am intimidated by the 9 people who have gone before me, but if I don't give myself a chance, then I've lost before I begin. My mentor keeps telling me that The Games can sometimes be all about luck and who you know. Which is exactly what I am hoping for this year. A bit of luck and some likeability. So overall, I would say, never discount anyone, because on any given day a multitude of stars are aligning to set up the win for one of the 24 of us here." A round of applause from the crowd.

"Wow, spoken like a true optimist."

I interject. "Which is funny Pauly, because at home I really am the opposite. I come from years of bullying and neglect. Which has been really tough to get through. But what's the point in letting that make you weaker or hiding it? So I decided I have to use all the hardships in my life and focus them on winning this thing. I have been told that The Hunger Games changes the life of its' Victor, but I feel it has changed me and my life in this one week already, and I'm sure it has for everyone else as well."

"Well Sam, I must say, you are the seedling that has just emerged from the seed. What do we think everyone? Do we think Sam will grow in to a mighty tree?"

There is a mixed feeling about this from the crowd. A few yells of support and applause, but just as many people yelling 'NO CHANCE!'.

"Okay Sam, lastly, as you know we ask to everyone. Why will YOU win these games?"

"You know what Pauly, I hate to steal other peoples' answers, but Solaria answered this perfectly for me already. I will win these Hunger Games because the smallest sometimes hold the best cards. And I feel if I draw the right deck, then I can definitely come home the winner."

**Sam Buckwood everyone! Ever since we started he has been the sniveling twerp from 5 that talks too much. But now, after his chapter, he is rather insightful and has a legitimate positivity about The Games…..but they haven't started yet, and everything always changes when they start.**

**Cain Kasidy from 7 next, who is the adopted Career.**

**Thanks for reading! 3 more chapters to go!**

**Isteed.**


	23. D7 - Cain

**District 7 – Cain Kasidy(18)**

Pre Games:

It's soup for dinner here again. I look around at my siblings, all four of them, each with their own distinct and unique personality, but all share the resemblance that is being a Kasidy. I'm no cook honestly, but since Mum and Dad are usually working until late in the night, I have no choice.

We sit around the dining room table and give thanks before starting our meal. Usually we give thanks for each other, our safety and the food in front of us. Even though the angsty teenager Ava can sometimes be a pain in my ass and my mischief causing brother Till pranks me non-stop. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Looking after all my brothers and sisters has instilled in me a sense of leadership and responsibility, something that is hard to gain otherwise. Although I'm sometimes a bit loud and short tempered which can damage relationships with those around me. As I eat my dinner I look around the table and think about what I wouldn't do for these people. I would die for them. Living in a society like ours you have to think about things like that. With the ever present threat of The Hunger Games dangling over your head, you have to think about what you would do to protect the ones you love and how far you would go. Two years ago a classmate of mine went in to The Games, he didn't come out. He didn't come out because he didn't fight for it, he didn't realize the implications that death brings to those around you. People around this part of the District were devastated for months. His funeral procession was packed out. Jackson left two parents without a child.

If I ever go in, I don't think I could kill in cold blood, but I think I'd fight to get back here, or die trying.

Just as I think about that possibility, little Maple, the youngest of us 5 asks me a question.

"You'll always be here to look after us won't you Cain?"

I smile at her, looking into her navy blue eyes so similar to mine.

"Of course Maple, I will always be here to look after you."

Interview:

"So what motivates you for the upcoming games Cain? From your profile here we can see you have 4 siblings at home. Do you think they would be up this late watching you now?"

"Yes Pauly, they would be. They would also probably be struggling without me, and that is a big motivation. Sometimes you have to fight to keep the things you love."

"So you are going to be a fighter then Cain?"

"Ahhh, well. I can't answer that question at the moment Pauly. I said I would fight to keep the things I love. But I've never been put in a situation to test that theory before. And of course I probably won't get a better chance to test it out than The Hunger Games." I hear a round of applause echoing from the audience.

Pauly chimes in again, but this time in a more serious tone.

"Well Cain, I don't usually ask this to tributes, especially not the younger ones. But you seem to be a level headed person with a good grasp on reality. And if you don't want to answer it then that is fine… Are you afraid to die Cain?"

I visibly gulp at that question. How is someone supposed to answer something like that? Firstly, I had never really thought about it before The Games and I want to give an accurate answer, but secondly, I also have to engage and entertain the audience. I feel at this point of the interview things have drastically changed for my image and role. I believe I was thought of as a somewhat reserved character who would be middle of the pack and not really outstanding at anything. But now, due to these past 3 minutes I believe that I may have become a model for a moral compass to check upon amidst The Games. I feel like I have become the level-headed, straight-shooting good-guy. But they don't yet know I will be a part of a bloodthirsty killing pack.

"Pauly, I am not scared to die. In all honesty, if any of us here lined in front of you have not come to the realization that death could very well be upon them, then you can write them off immediately. I think that to win these games you must keep your humanity in tact to survive the future. I believe that if I die with my humanity, then I can die peacefully."

"I like that answer Cain, but I find it interesting you used the word humanity instead of morality. For a lot of people their morals are what guides them through it."

"Humanity is different from morality Pauly. If I can come out of these games feeling like I haven't lost the essence of who I am, then I have succeeded."

I can feel the interview is almost coming to a close now. And I am right.

"Ok Cain, last question. Your question is a bit different from those that have gone before you. Do you think you CAN win these Games?"

I take a deep breath and gather my thoughts before answering. This is the time to show off. Oaken my mentor told me I would get one opportunity for it.

"I can win these games Pauly. I'm an all rounder and I have the mental stability and attitude to pull through. I may not be the best fighter, but I'm sure I'm the strongest where it counts." I tap a finger towards my head.

And with a final round of applause my interview is over. I head to my seat and take the spot next to Aniya. I give her a smile. If I'm to have any chance of winning this thing I need her as close a possible, spreading good will about me to the remaining tributes I haven't associated with. She smiles back, clearly now more relaxed than before. She breezed through her interview talking strategy the whole time to Pauly, who barely even had time to get a word in. Even those in the audience were so amused by Pauly's unusal silence, that she received a standing ovation at the end of her interview. Like I said, I will really need her.

**2 more left! Just to let everyone know I will be away from the 1****st**** till the 11****th****. I hope to write during this time, but if there are no updates, then don't freak out. Thanks to all who keep reading! I can't believe over 100 reviews! Thanks so much! **

**The question for this chapter is: Who is at the top of your list of contenders?**

**Isteed.**


	24. D10 - Ivy

**District 10 – Ivy Caverly(12)**

It's been over an hour now since the interviews started. The audience is starting to get bored, I can tell. After Richys lackluster performance I saw a few yawns coming from here and there. He really didn't do well, all he did was tell everyone about death and what he thinks death is and that we are all heading towards the inevitability anyway so he may as well get it over and done with. Depressing is the word that I think would best sum up Richys' interview. The only good thing about going after him is that the audience is now eagerly anticipating a change in pace from what they just witnessed; and I hope to be that change.

I've thought about it a lot, what I'm going to say in my interview. I want to tell them about my brothers and how they made me tough. Show of my muscle and tell them that I've been taught a lot by them. How coming from District 10 means I'm no stranger to using knives to skin an animal or using a weapon to put one out of its' misery. To me that is just life. I also want to tell them that sometimes the smallest tributes are the smartest and can actually do pretty well. Even though no one that is 12 has ever won the games doesn't mean I don't have a fighting chance. I plan to change that statistic. Lastly I do want to rectify Richy a bit. He has been like one of my brothers to me since this journey began. So I need to tell the audience how he has pledged to look out for me in the games and how that because we are likeable, but also under the radar, that hopefully people won't come after us straight away.

In my heart I am an extremely unique tribute. But my head tells me different. We have 3 other young females this year and at least 1 of them so far has tried to pull off the tough girl look. That is the 6 girl Maia. She went through her interview telling people that she has grown up in violence and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Lia from 8 went for the sweet and innocent routine, which can work, but doesn't exactly buy you many favours when it comes to winning the thing. Kaila from 11 I have absolutely no idea about, so I guess I will have to wait and see.

"Ivy Caverly! Come to the stage sweetheart." Pauly Partridges voice resonates around the theatre.

I walk towards him in my ankle length green dress, which matches the colour of my eyes exactly. Throughout it is specks of gold dust which match the colour of my hair. My stylist said she really loved to match things and that the cherry on top of this outfit was the sparkling gold and green pointed flat shoes.

Pauly of course doesn't comment on my outfit to what I can imagine would be the outrage of my Stylist; he is straight to business and after the general introductions I take my seat next to him. The seat has morphed in to different colours throughout the night, matching the tribute sitting upon it. At the moment it is golden.

"Ivy, you are so much smaller in real life!" Laughter erupts from the crowd.

Quickly I reply, "Good things come in small packages Pauly."

"Ohhh Ivy, you know how we all love a surprise package. Tell us why that is you."

I stare out in to the audience in front of me to show fearlessness.

"I grew up in District 10 as we all know. My family owns all types of livestock and I'm no stranger to blood or anything like that and am pretty good with a knife because we skin a lot of animals. Actually, my brothers taught me all of that. I have a lot of brothers, so I grew up pretty tough. Do you want to see?" A resounding burst of YES comes from the audience. So I indulge their request. Quickly I stand up and flex my arm muscles. After years of working in the hard slogs of 10, my arms are ripped and my muscles are bigger than most girls older than me.

"Ivy,Ivy,Ivy, well what can we all say? Even though you are very small, you sure make up for it with those guns." Pauly says through burps of giggles.

"And your brothers you say taught you all you know. Is that right? We can only assume they are sending their love through this broadcast right now."

Thinking of home always brings tears to my eyes. I have cried a lot these past days. I think of it like when we wean our sheep, cattle and horses off of their mothers. They cry and scream for days and days and days before they eventually get over it. I'm still in the crying stage. Unconsciously I have tears in my eyes and I wipe them off quickly when I realize it.

"Sorry Pauly, thinking of home still gets to me at the moment. I try not to think of it. But to answer your question I will say yes. My brothers and my Dad will definitely be sending their love through to me. They are a big motivation for me wanting to go home. Sometimes I just wish I had a picture of them all just so I can see them whenever I want." The crowd really feels for me. I hear an Awh from them.

"Well Ivy, I think….wait…..Yes, we have it here for you," A man wearing a skin tight black suit runs out from backstage and hands Pauly something. "Here is your photo."

I look down at the photo that is now in my hands. It's that one family portrait that we have at home. I see my brothers and dad, all with their brunette hair staring up at me and smiling, and there I am with my blondness shining like a beacon in the corner. I take after my mother supposedly. The tears are starting again.

"What do you think?" Pauly asks.

"I can't…..I can't….Thank you so much."

"You keep that one Ivy and take it in to the arena with you. A bit of inspiration." Pauly continues.

"I will. Thank you."

The crowd roars with support and I get the hint to move along to my seat. I clutch the palm sized photo in my hands and run over to my chair.

I have the motivation I need now.

**I'm back! Ok, I will update again shortly. One more tribute then it starts to get good. Sorry for the delay, hopefully I still have a couple of people that are still reading. I feel as if a whole bunch of people disappeared!**

**Isteed.**


	25. D1 - Saphira

**District 1 – Saphira Crimson(16)**

I can't believe I signed up for this. Looking around the room I can see only a few things. In front of me is a tube with a platform in it. This will lift me up in to the arena. An arena I may not return from. There is also a jug of water and a chair. My stylist is here as well. We didn't really get along too well, so there is no point in talking to her at all. Sure, she made me look pretty, but that's all she did, she never got to know me. I'm more like a piece of meat that will help her career.

Deep breaths Saphira. Deep breaths.

The thing I dislike about this is the unknown. I don't know what I'm getting myself in to. I don't know what the arena is, and I don't know if the people I'm supposed to be with will have my back as well. I think I trust Tilver, we have gone through this process together after all. I also to some extent like Nickel, he seems like a stand up guy and in all honesty I don't think he would be the one to turn on us. The other two though; Lanius is extremely volatile and I don't like that, whereas Cain has his partner who makes us nervous. Aniya is someone that I think Cain won't want to kill. In fact I'm almost certain they are in cahoots with the other tributes. Nothing that comes out of his mouth will be believable in that arena.

I'm not worried about anyone else really. I think we can deal with all of them. This is what calms me down. As long as we all get together we will be fine. I won't die if our group sticks together.

Death really makes you think about everything in your life at home. My brother Cobalt was training for the games when I volunteered. Now that I'm here, I don't want him to volunteer, because this is the most stressful and scary moment of my life. When I volunteered I did it for my parents. The pressure to volunteer was excruciating. Everyday at home they would be talking about how it would bring them honour and riches. Sacrificing your daughter is worth money apparently. They've seen the games before, they know that even the strongest tributes go down. I'm strong, they have seen me fight, and when I left they were convinced I couldn't possibly lose. I think if I could say one thing to my family right now I would tell them that this isn't worth it. I would tell Cobalt not to volunteer. Find someone you love and spend your days without fear. There will always be another volunteer, just leave it be.

"Tributes please move to your positions. Be prepared in 1 minute."

I shake. Pouring a glass of water I can see my hinds violently convulsing of their own accord. I must be hydrated, this could be my last glass of water for a while.

Joelle, my stylist moves over to me, puts a hand on my back and pushes me to my tube. I don't resist.

As I approach the tube I start walking there on my own, without the hand at my back. I enter the tube and turn around, prepared for whatever lies before me.

Then it happens, the platform lifts me up slowly. Blackness befalls me as I move through the depths of the arena underground before I make my way in to the light.

The arena.

Well this is certainly not what I expected. Around me the arena is pretty vast, and I can see may cause a lot more trouble that I expected. I'm on the furthest right position of the arena. I'm on a podium and about 5 metres to the left of me stands Tilver on his podium. Both our podiums are on the same platform together, the platform is a circle with a diameter of 5 metres. Below our platform is a 20 metre drop into what looks like a rapid river. No surviving a fall down there. At the top of our circle is a 1 metre wide walkway with no handrails that extends for 50 metres over the river and leads to the cornucopia, which is set in a flat field. That's not what fascinates me though. At the other end of the circle behind me is another path that runs towards the opposite side of the river. Set upon this side is the biggest castle I have ever seen. There is 2 gigantic walls to pass through and then behind those is the castle that extends probably 6 stories high.

Well, this is interesting. Each district is together on their platform. If they are working together well that's good. Like for me. Tilver and I can both carefully run along our small bridge to the Cornucopia. Other pairs like 12 probably will run towards the castle. If you don't get along, well the walkway isn't big enough for two, so they will either throw eachother off or have to head in different directions. That will be fun for the small girl from District 8 and her bully friend.

Extending to my left are the other Districts podium, we are in a straight line perched above the river, rather than in the usual circle and we are in order. Around 10 metres off to our platforms' left is Lanius and the panicked looking blonde girl on theirs. Then the determined looking 3's and I can make out District 4. Nickel positioned towards the Cornucopia whilst Naina has turned around facing the bridge towards the castle. Lucky they're not going the same way.

I hear a voice now. A countdown.

I look over towards Tilver, and he looks back to me and nods. I nod a return and then face the bridge that is heading towards the Cornucopia. Luckily I'm not scared of heights, or this would be a very perilous journey.

45…44…43…42…..

I wonder how many people will head towards the Cornucopia? Who will fall off their bridge? How big is that castle and how many rooms are there to hide in?

This is going to be a very interesting games.

21...20…19…18…..

I position my feet carefully so I can start with a run.

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…..

I run.

**So what does everyone think of the arena? I thought it fit well with the title Defences. In fact, everything has spread from the arena layout. Who do you think will do well and not so well with this arena layout? District partners together on their platforms with small bridges all over a 20 metre death drop and a choice to head towards supplies at the Cornucopia or the unknown in the castle.**

**I'm also putting up a poll on my profile. So please vote!**

**Read and review! Thanks for reading!**


	26. Bloodbath!

**Bloodbath**

**District 7 – Aniya Johnson(16)**

"GO ANIYA" Screams Cain to my face. Oh my God, it's actually started. I'm on this platform and the games have begun. Cain is screaming at me to turn and run, but how am I supposed to do that? The bridges over to the castle side of the arena are barely a metre wide, and if I fall, well I'm doomed. I look back at Cain.

"I can't! Just go, I'll figure it out." I tell him. Cain shakes his head and turns around to start towards the Cornucopia. I watch him carefully walk the distance of the bridge towards the other side of the river. Because the Districts are, from what I can tell, lined up in order, Cain will come out right in to the middle of the Cornucopia area. I can't watch it, so I turn around to head for the other side. Heights aren't my thing really, I'm not scared of them, but I sure as hell don't like them. I can see a few of the other Districts movements, especially those around me. The 6's have both run towards the Cornucopia, there is some sort of tussle with the 8's and the 5's have split up. Almost like a trapeze artist I make my way along the rail less bridge towards the gigantic castle in front of me. As I get the hang of it I start a bit faster. If there was anyone waiting for me at the end, they could easily push me off or herd me back to the Cornucopia, so I have to move faster.

The last few steps are the worst. I haven't had time to soak in what is happening around me and I have to decide quickly what to do. The two loner girls from 2 and 4 are running through the first set of walls and have split off in different directions and the only other people that have managed to cross are the 12's.

"KELLI! ASH! OVER HERE! WAIT FOR ME!" I scream towards them before I start to run.

I run quicker than I ever have. Probably too quick, because the next thing I know I feel myself stumbling forward. I've tripped. There is nothing I can do, because as I tumble I feel where I am going, rapidly sliding down the steep bank of the river, hurtling towards its' rapid waters. Like a piñata I tear down the steep bank and I pray that I don't fall in to the water. And then it all goes black.

**District 8 – Lia Davidson(13)**

This is the worst possible situation that could happen to me. Harold and I perched 20 metres above a raging river. I'm faced towards the bridge heading to the castle, but Harold, he is faced towards me with a smile on his face.

Out of all the things to happen. He is going to kill me, he is going to pick me up above his head and throw me. I'll be dead before I even rise for a breath. My only chance is to reach the metre wide bridge, I know that I'm a lot steadier on my feet and Harold would have a hard time keeping his balance.

Then it starts. Harold takes 2 steps towards me and lurches at me in a jump. I step to the side to try to dodge. It wasn't enough, he clips my foot and I lose my balance and slip towards the edge of the platform teetering uncomfortably close to the edge. Harold has recovered as well and he is back on his feet; but so am I, and I landed closer to the bridge of death. I reach the bridge, it's a 50 metre run, but I think I'm quicker than him. If I don't look down I won't notice the perilous fall. I hear footsteps, large footsteps, so I turn my head around. Harold is lunging across the bridge, surprisingly balanced, and he is gaining on me. So much so that he is close enough to jump on top of me.

Then it hits me. I stop to a dead halt and lie flat on the ground. Caught off guard, Harold doesn't have time to react to what has happened and he keeps barging along. His speed is against him as he trips over my flat body and falls. He falls to the side and slips off the edge of the bridge, never to be seen again.

Stunned by what happened I walk with large lifeless eyes towards the edge of my bridge at the castle. At the end of the bridge I have company waiting. Sam and Ivy run towards me, grab my hand and we sprint towards the castle.

**District 11 – Dorian Sprout(16)**

"Kaila, listen to me. I'll come back with supplies and then we can go. We will be alright. I know you are scared I won't come back. If you see anything happen to me just run ok?"

The shy girl is crying. It's day 1, hour 1, minute 1 and she is crying. I kind of regret telling everyone I would look after her. Sometimes you just have to look after yourself. But you can't leave a girl like that out here on her own. She looks up at me.

"Please don't go Dorian. We can just turn around now and run off the other way. At least then we know we will make it through."

We are still on our platform suspended over the river. Everyone else has run of to their respective choices. We can't waste anymore time here or otherwise it'll be to late to even scavenge the edges of the Cornucopia.

"I'm going Kaila, and I have to go now. Wait for me here, and if anything happens, just turn around and run for it. Find the smallies group. Ok?" I tell her.

"Ok Dorian. But make sure you come back."

With Kaila's permission I run off to the Cornucopia. The fear of dropping off does not make me hesitate because the longer I stay the more risky this move becomes. Ideally I would have liked to have been the first one there, grab a backpack a knife and then knick off.

When I reach the end of the bridge I look around for supplies. Nothing. All that's left is in the Cornucopia. I see the 9's are here as well, the 3's, the volunteer group, the boy from 10, the girl from 5 and the 6's.

Suddenly the 6's are racing towards me. And they are armed too. The girl brandishes a sadistic smile and a knife while the boy has a sword. Crap. I have nothing.

Trying to think of what to do I see a knife about 15 metres to my left. Hurriedly I race towards it and pick it up. By now the pair are on me. I aim a punch for the boy and hit him square in the eye. He falls, but his partner is quick. She stabs me in the thigh. I know I'm a goner when I see the bright forceful red blood which means an artery is hit.

"Goodbye Red Head." The girl says with a smile. As I am crouched on the ground I check to see if Kaila is running yet. She hasn't. Damn.

The knife the 6 girl holds is now at my throat. And with a single slice, my games are over.

**District 3 – Arica Riverbee(16)**

I see the 6's take out the innocent boy from 11. Sure I know I will have to kill. But they killed him in cold blood. He hadn't even been near the Cornucopia 5 seconds before they were on to him. He never stood a chance. At least it was quick. Alex and I have been avoiding the best of the confrontation so far. The big group is still separated and the 9's and the boy from 10 are capitalizing on that.

Now that I have seen what the 6's can do though, we have to get them before they get us and I know that they will get us because they have been eyeing us off for a while.

My gut is correct, because with blood trickling down her hands, she signals her partner towards us and they start to run. Alex and I are more prepared, and more skilled than the pair; but they are bloodthirsty. When they are 20 metres away I grab a knife I scouted from the edges of the Cornucopia. This knife doesn't have the same feel as a throwing knife. Not perfectly balanced. It has a heavy base and a lighter blade and will therefore travel differently. I adjust my aim and acceleration accordingly and release. Target down. The boy Wing is hit on the foot where I was aiming and staggers. I thought this would slow his partner but it doesn't and before I have time to react she is on me. Even though she is tiny she launches herself right up to my face with her full body weight behind it. I'm on the ground and Alex is trying to remove the crazy girl from my face. She hisses around and scratches his face where he starts to bleed. Then it gets crazy. Wing is back up and now wielding the knife I threw. He is approaching the in pain Alex from behind and lifts up his knife for the finishing blow when out of nowhere Solaria crashes in to him, throwing him to the ground while the knife is knocked aside. Alex, now recovered, realizes how close he came to death, turns around and stabs the boy in the heart with his own knife.

This seems to jolt the girl awake and she slightly releases her grip on me. Which is enough. My spare knife up my sleeve rolls down in to my palm and I shove it through her ribs. Instantly she stops struggling and collapses.

"Thanks Solaria. You saved our bums." Alex says.

"No worries. Now if we have everything we need, can we please go? The volunteer group just saw what we did and I think they are more focused on us than everyone else."

We get up and run back over the river towards the castle.

**District 9 - Indigo Lexington(15)**

Crap. The 3's took off. That leaves Isabelle and I as well as the boy from 10 who is still scouting of supplies. We've spent too much time here. We have to go now! The volunteer group is now together and looking around for victims. They catch my eye. Frantically I look around for Isabelle, to see where her freckly face is. Shit! Isabelle is sneaking towards the Cornucopia eyeing off a backpack near the entrance. She is bold. Around 20 metres away the volunteer group discuss their tactics. Isabelle draws ever nearer to the backpack and now has her arm around its' straps. Carefully she raises it, keeping one eye on the group and the other on her movements. The bag now rests on her back and she turns around.

And then it happens. Isabelle steps on a stick, which cracks beneath her boots. As if a group of hyenas, the volunteer pack turns around as one unit and see her standing there. Frozen.

I can't look. But I know it's over when they turn back around and start moving towards me. So I sprint to the closest bridge looking to get out of here. Only 4 of them are after me. But I'm still greatly outnumbered.

I reach the bridge and run along in haste. But it's not enough; they're catching me, and quick. So I pick up the pace. Unfortunately I lose my balance halfway along and I slip. I struggle to cling to anything I can but eventually I find a grip. My fingers clutch the edge of the bridge as my body dangles off the edge. 1 by 1, the volunteer pack arrive. The big boy from two kneels down and looks over the edge in to my eyes.

"Poor boy." He says. Then he peels one of my fingers off the side of the bridge.

"Just didn't get away quick enough." Then he removes my entire left hand.

"Goodbye." He steps on my right hand, my grip releases and I fall. Fall in to the river. I'm dead before I rise for breath.

**District 4 - Nickel Parks(18)**

Idiots. As everyone runs after the boy from 9, from the corner of my eye I can see Richy from 10 take his opportunity by scavenging the best of the supplies that we left unsupervised. What a smart cookie. I turn around and run back towards the Cornucopia to confront him.

He sees me running back towards him and picks up a spear in defense. I have a spear in my hands as well, and I'm sure I know how to use mine better than he knows how to use his.

"Scavenging through our supplies are we?" I ask with a smile on my face.

"I'm done. Just let me go and we can both be on our way. You don't really want to kill me. And I certainly won't be able to kill you." Richy argues.

"You're very pragmatic Richy, I'll give you that. And you're right about one thing. I don't want to kill you. So you have 5 seconds. I'm going to turn around and when I turn back. You will be gone." I turn my back on Richy to give him the opportunity. But just as I suspected, Richy thrusts his spear towards my back, trying to end me before I turn around. Luckily I am prepared for his cowardly attempt and I turn around, deflect his blow, which glances to the left of my body. His spear is released from his arms and he staggers forward on to the ground.

"Richy! I gave you the opportunity. Why!? I don't want to kill you. But you give me no choice." His eyes roll back and his body collapses in a heap once I've finished.

I gulp. My breath is heavy and fast. I didn't enjoy that. I never thought that killing would be this hard. When I signed up for this I didn't realize the repercussions. My dad was right.

I trudge back to the group who are at the bridge of District 10. Lanius looks smug.

"We just let that rat from 9 fall to an early grave." He goes to hi-5 Cain, but Cain refuses. He is far from impressed.

"Get the stick out of your ass Cain. You have to learn to have what it takes. Because if you don't I will be the one to show you just what is necessary." Lanius retorts.

I interject.

"Guys, we just started. Let's gather our thoughts and stock up on supplies."

Out of nowhere Saphira chimes in.

"Look! Over there." She points to the mid-river platform over at 11, where the tiny 12 year old Kaila is crying. But then she spots us pointing and turns to run away.

"I'll get her." Saphira comments and raises the bow and arrow she brought with her from the Cornucopia.

"NO! WAIT!" I shout at her. But it's too late. Saphiras' arrow flies through the air and as if without any resistance, finds her targets fleeing back. Her body stops mid flight and falls in a heap. Saphira turns around to glare at me.

"She was just a kid!" I say meekly, tears welling up in my eyes. She responds.

"We're all just kids Nickel. Think about that."

**Bloodbath complete! 8 tributes down. 16 left. Thanks to all who submitted bloodbaths, I hope I wrote them to your liking. Thanks also to everyone who reviews. I appreciate it, even if I don't have time to respond. Let me know what you think of this chapter!**

**Don't forget about the poll up on my profile! Sorry if you already voted for tributes who didn't make it.**

**Isteed. **


	27. First Step on the Long Road

**First Step on the Long Road**

**District 2 – Tanya Ravenwood(16)**

I really really wish I had been able to run off with something from the Cornucopia. But because of the way the arena was set up, I honestly just didn't want to get killed in the process. So I ran away from it, seriously, I did not want to get in Lanius's way at all. He would have knocked me over like a wrecking ball. So now I'm here and so far I have nothing.

About 2 hours in to the games I found an opening in to the castle. It was like a trapdoor, all covered in ivy with the wood rotting beneath it. Safe to say no one had been in this entrance yet. It wasn't too difficult to get through, just had to get rid of the vines and ivy that masked it and pull tightly on the door. Some of the wood fell out in my attempt, but at least I'm inside now.

It smells down here. Like it really smells. Living in District 2, I'm not accustomed to bad smells and I have never smelt anything so bad in my entire life. Maybe I'm in the drainage system, where all the lavatory waste comes down. There is rats down here. I don't know if I have the guts to eat them or not, but without a weapon, there is no point in trying.

As I make my way through the sewage like area I think about how different things would have been if mum hadn't passed on. Dad wouldn't have become such a man slut, and we would've been one big happy family. I miss those days. I miss waking up to my mums whispers in my ear, or the warmth of a hug. I haven't had a hug since she left. All that she left when she died was a shell of a daughter and a wreck of a man. If I get out of here alive, then she will be proud of me. I can just tell, no matter where she is.

The water starts to subside and the path I'm walking on slowly but surely angles up and out of the sewer. My heart is beating louder and louder. This castle is huge, from what I could tell there was at least 6 floors, plus what's underneath – clearly. I must still be underground, because as I emerge from the sewer, I can tell you exactly where I am. Around me are shackles hanging from chains, which dismally swing from the ceiling. There are cells with locked doors, skeletons rotting and cobwebs hanging from every inch of the large, dim room. I've found the dungeons.

Perfect.

This is good, very good. If I can find some sort of food around here, some water and a key to this area then I could be a formidable force. I could lock people up, or lock myself in to keep out of reach.

Quickly I start scavenging around the room, checking shackles, the pockets of ratty clothes that hang off skeletons. I even check under some of the large stones that make up the floor. Nothing.

Well this sucks, there is nothing of use to me here. Then I see it. A skeleton in the darkest corner of the room about 30 metres away from me. The skeleton wears a weapon at its' side, and next to that weapon, dangling from a belt is a set of old looking keys. This couldn't get any better.

I could call myself 'The Dungeon Master.'

**District 5 – Sam Buckwood(14)**

"Sam, can we please stop!? We've been walking around like lost ducks for hours and we've gotten nowhere!" Ivy and Lia are complaining again. Ever since we left they have complained. 'Can we stop now?' is their favourite. Sometimes I don't think they realize that this is the bloody Hunger Games. For God's sake girls, pull yourselves together. Plus it's not like I haven't let them stop. Everytime I open a new door, or reach the top of a flight of stairs we stop.

"SAM! WE ARE STOPPING NOW!" Lia screams out.

I turn around, shocked.

"Lia, we can't stop. The volunteers could be right behind us." I correctly point out.

"Oh give me a break Sam, you're not always right! You know that every time you open a new door, we could be running straight into a hive of tracker jackers or even worse mutts. Plus, have you seen what mutts have done to tributes in previous games! It's horrible! We need to stop! NOW!"

Dam, she has a point I guess. Also, there is no better place to stop. We are in corridor; the cool stone bricks make the temperature comfortable. Plus there are only 2 entrances, one straight ahead and one behind. Also the large wooden doors both lock from our side. There is a window that looks over the arena and 2 long benches on either side of the walls and a rug on the floor for a comfortable sleep.

"Okay, fine. We will stop here for the night. There is no place better. It's safe and we can scan the arena." I say clearly.

Ivy and Lia look relieved. I didn't want this leadership thrust upon me. But because I am the oldest of the three of us, I took it upon myself to lead. I don't think the girls mind. I mean, they wouldn't even be where we are without me. Plus, all through my life, I was never well liked, and now, well, it feels good to be needed and actually have some 'friends'.

"I'll go on first look out, you guys rest up okay?" The girls collapse in a head and make themselves comfortable on the rug. I go to both doors and lock them with the easy latch locks. Then I go to the window and slowly open it. No point announcing to the whole arena where we are. That's suicide. Once it's open I look at the view from our corridor. It's amazing. We must be pretty high up. We did go up a lot of stairs, so that makes sense. I scan the arena to see if I can scout any tributes from here. I also take in the layout. I can see the Cornucopia and the 12 sets of bridges over the river. I see the two large outer walls as well. Then there is the castle. The castle is circular in shape and in the centre of it is a wonderful lawn with gardens throughout it. There is 4 doors that open onto it. It's funny, because from space this must make the castle look like a 'target'.

I can't see anyone out in the open. They must be out of view. I leave the window open and head for the opposite side door to where we came in. Just to have a peak of what is on the other side. Slowly I unlock it and open it up inch by inch. I get a good glimpse of what is in there before I close it again, lean against it put my hand over my mouth and say.

"No. Way!."

**District 7 – Cain Kasidy(18)**

One by one they take the dead away. 8 in total – one-third of us. Gone. Nickel, Tilver, Saphira and I sit in the shade of the Cornucopia while they take them and bow our heads in a show of respect. I think we all know that in order to move forward we must respect those that don't. Lanius on the other hand, throws caution to the wind and tears through the supplies, ripping box after box of gear open and throwing it all over the open ground. Weapons, water, food, everything.

"He shouldn't be doing that." I say. "We want it all in a big pile to guard. Remember there are 12 routes of entry for someone to come and steal."

"I know, Cain. But he is so paranoid, that it's not worth it. Sometimes I don't even think it's worth talking when Lanius isn…" Tilver didn't get another word in. Lanius storms over, and he is furious.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT ME?! I HAVE EARS YOU KNOW. I CAN HEAR YOUR LITTLE STRATEGY SESSIONS ALL THE WAY OVER THERE!" His face is a ball of red fury as he points to where he was standing. I can tell he is about ready to put someone down.

Saphira is the one to calm him. I think Lanius is probably more willing to listen to her than the three of us guys. I think he thinks we are out to get him. Which is not true. Just yet.

"Lanius. We were just saying that once we open the gear, we should pile it up as a safeguard against intruders. So that instead of guarding a 100 metre wide radius of stuff, we only guard 15 metres or so."

He contemplates this for a second before nodding in agreement.

"Fine, but we can do that later. Right now it's time to hunt. We will go with 3, while 2 people stay here. They can take turns sleeping and guarding. We will hunt in shifts. Tilver, Cain, you guys are with me. Grab your weapons and let's go."

Without any time to spare, Tilver and I grab our weapons and some supplies and head off.

We decide to cross at the 7 bridge, because it's the closest. Making sure that none of us fall off, we traverse across carefully. About two-thirds of the way there something catches the light from the corner of my eye. About 20 metres below me I can see an unmoving shape at the edge of the river, almost fallen in. I don't bring this to the attention of Tilver and Lanius for the time being. The closer we get to the castle side the clearer the shape becomes. My eyes widen when I realize what it is. It's Aniya. She's unconscious and perilously close to rolling in to the inescapable river. She isn't dead, otherwise they would've taken her with the rest.

Tilver turns to me inquisitively and asks.

"Are you alright Cain? You look startled." We are at the end of the bridge now, on safe land.

"Um," I shake me head a few times, I have to think about my reply. What do I do? Do I put her out of her misery? Or something else? I turn back to him and add, "Sure, I'm fine Tilver. Let's keep going."

Dam you Aniya.

**Ahhh, you guys thought she was gone. I must admit, I did laugh when everyone thought that Aniya was dead. Although she's in a bit of a to spread out POV's and give you a glimpse of the arena. There are a few surprises spread throughout it, as you can probably tell. Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you liked the bloodbath!**

**Remember to vote on the poll which is on my profile!**

**Thank again for reading! **

**Isteed.**


	28. Making Friends With Tributes

**Making Friends With Tributes**

**District 1 – Saphira Crimson(16)**

Lanius, Cain and Tilver came back around 3 hours after they left, completely empty-handed. They took the first right hand turn and walked outside the circumference of the castle, looking for tracks, doors, or anything that might have pointed to a nearby tribute. When they returned, we all rested before laboring away putting the gear from the Cornucopia in a defensible position.

It was probably a mere 20 minutes after that when Lanius announces the departure of the next hunting party. This one consists of myself, Lanius and Nickel. According to Lanius, he will be a part of every hunting party, as not to miss any of the action.

We head inside the first wall this time to check for any signs of entrances.

"Left." Says Lanius.

"Why's that?" I ask.

"Because you can see tracks, there are more heading towards the left direction than the right." He replies.

I'm not much of a tracker, and Lanius obviously appears to be a lot brighter than any of us picked up on, so Nickel, Lanius and I head left. The grass has been freshly mowed, and in the dimming light of the afternoon, it appears to be a deep green and orange. There is probably a mere hour before it becomes dark, and there is no point in being stuck in the middle of this God forsaken castle in the middle of the night. We did discuss it and Nickel agreed with me that we should head back. Lanius did not.

"We will find somewhere where we have a wall at out back and only one passage of entrance in. That way we can have a guard while two sleep. No tributes in their right minds would think about coming after well-armed and skilled fighters in the middle of the night. Plus the only armed ones are the pair from 3 with the 5 girl." Lanius lectured us on this a multitude of times, and now, as the sun disappears and the grass turns dark, we need to find somewhere to stop.

We stop at the base of one of the watchtowers along the wall and look for a way in. We did bring a lantern and some matches, so we do have light, which is good.

Nickel waves the lantern ahead of him and leads us around the base of the watchtower, looking for an entrance.

"Guys look!" Nickel points down towards the ground.

"A trapdoor or something! And someone seems to have ripped the vines off of it and gone inside. Should we go in as well?" Nickel is in fact correct. At the base of a watchtower is a hatch about 2 metres squared, ivy and vines ripped away, and the rotting wood has caved in as someone pulled on it.

"Of course we go in! Idiot!" Lanius remarks. Like a bird, Lanius leaps and soars in to the trapdoor and lands with a splash at his feet.

"Gross! It's sewage! Guys come down." He says.

Nickel and I jump in after him and both land with a splash. The first thing we both notice is the putrid smell of faeces mixed with rats mixed with rotting flesh. I dry heave, multiple times as we walk through the knee-high depth waste. Slowly it subsides and angles up towards a large room. Chains and shackles hang from the ceiling and cell doors creak as we move past them. Dungeons. Creepy.

Only one of the cells is locked up, which is strange to me. So I approach it. You would think that there is something worthwhile lying in the depths of the locked cell.

"Nickel, bring that light over here now!" I announce. Nickel and Lanius make their way towards me with the light.

"Shine it in there. Something worthwhile has got to be in this cell. Otherwise it wouldn't be locked."

And there is something worthwhile in there, because we disrupted it. Locked in a cell is the blonde beauty from District 2. Lanius's District partner. When she turns around to check out the commotion, her eyes widen in terror.

"What should we do?" Nickel asks. "Kill her?"

"No." Lanius says immediately. "We will wait her out. We'll stay here till morning and keep guard, then Saphira and I will head back to camp. Cain and Tilver will come and relieve you tomorrow Nickel. Until then, I will take first duty. Get some rest." Nickel nods. Tanya hasn't said anything yet, and as my eyes drift off to sleep, hers still glow in the night, wide with fear.

**District 1 - Tilver Cummings(18)**

"You don't talk much do you?" Cain asks, turning his head to one side. We've both been staring in to the fire for a few hours, neither of us willing to sleep. The others must have camped out over night because they haven't been back.

"What do you mean? I talk all the time." I reply. I'm not sure where this is going.  
>"No," he corrects me. "You say plenty of things, but you never really <em>talk.<em>"

I ask again. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you chime in here and there. The only difference is that I've gotten substance out of the others. I know Saphira never really wanted to volunteer, and I know Nickel has major daddy issues. Lanius, well, there is no point in trying. You on the other hand; I know you're hiding things, but you're too walled up to get to actually talk."

He has a point. I've never really opened up to anyone here. To me I think, what is the point? I don't want to make connections, and I don't want to come off as weak. I mean, I've been through a lot, and everything in my past I've put behind me for a reason, and I don't want to share it.

"There is nothing to share." I say. "What's the point in telling you anyway?"

"There is no point." Cain replies. "I just thought about passing the time. You can listen to me though right?"

"Sure" I say.

"Well, 2 years ago a friend of mine, Jackson, went in to The Games. Clearly he didn't win. Tortured by the girl from District 2. I just don't like to think of the implications that if something happened to me, then what would it be like for those at home. Jacksons' death left a huge hole in our community, and I'm afraid that my death would cause the same thing." Cains eyes look up at me from the fire, staring in to my soul, looking for answers, or some kind of comfort.

"You're not dead yet Cain." I tell him.

"Yeh, I know, but do you think about this stuff?"

He's trying to get some emotion out of me, something real.

"Yes Cain, I think about it all the time, and I don't like talking about it, especially not Brill."

"Who's Brill?" Cain caught up on that little slip up quickly. I sigh, fine, I'll tell him.

"Brill was…..my girl, I guess you could say. Probably the poster child of District 2, she went in to the same games as your friend Jackson actually. Obviously she didn't win either. So when you talk about leaving someone or something behind, then the answer is yes. I know what it feels like to have half your heart get stabbed in the chest. I know what it feels like to never feel again. I know what it feels like to carry a burden around your neck, like an anvil dragging you under water. Sometimes when you see someone you love die, you go to a place worse than hell, and bottling that pain up, it helps to keep you from going back there. So let's drop it okay?" I say the last few words in a half shout and I'm on the verge of tears. I didn't like what I became when Brill didn't come back, and I never want to go back there.

Cain starts to talk.

"It doesn't you know? Bottling it up, I mean. It doesn't help. Now I know you better and I felt emotion from you. We've both experienced the same thing, the tragedy of The Games in real life. Sometimes it knocks us down, and it's hard to get back up. But you did. That takes strength of character, and talking it over does help. It helps to take that dragging feeling in your chest and chase it away. I don't want to be the one to bring that feeling on yours or anyone else's family. So I don't think I'm cut out for these Games, and that's what scares me the most."

Cain is right. I'm scared of that too. That's why I've kept my hands clean so far.

"You are cut out for it Cain. And thanks, I do feel better now."

He looks up at me from the fire again before saying.

"Yeh, I know. I can tell. You go to bed now. I got this. I'll wake you up in a couple of hours."

I oblige and head off to rest my eyes.

**District 12 – Kelli Ford(15)**

So far, things have gone pretty much to plan. Except for the Aniya situation. There was literally nothing we could do though. The bloodbath was ending and we could have potentially drowned trying to save her. Better to leave her and maybe come back later, if she's still there. Ash and I know she's still alive. She never appeared lit up in the sky. 8 others did though, including poor little Kaila, determined Dorian and realist Richy.

Ash and I headed straight for the castle, trying to find an entrance as soon as possible. Around 15 minutes after we started, we found an old door that led up 6 levels, so we could choose where we wanted to go. Level 4 seemed like a nice sounding level, so we chose that one. I think The Games Gods were looking over us when we chose level 4, because after searching through room after room, finding servants quarters and bathrooms and storage facilities, we actually came across something so much better than anything else. We came across the kitchens. And we have been here ever since. Of course we locked it, found some good sneak holes and storage in the floors to hide in, just in case, but we also grabbed sacks full of fruit and vegetables and bread. We also came across a big storage container of water, which is perfect. Probably the best start we could hope for.

Ash's grey features are like a security blanket in these games. Thank heavens that we started on the same platform over the river, no need to search for each other. He reminds me of my friend Nathan back home, someone I can confide in, who looks out for the well being of myself. Nothing more than friendship though, we don't want to confuse our situation any more than what it is, considering we are in the midst of a fight for our lives. But, you know, it is nice having him here.

Now we are sitting back, eating apples and sipping water, savouring out luck.

"So Kel, I know your mum wanted to marry you off, but you never said why."

Kel, only a few people in the world call me that. Nathan for starters, my dad did and my best friend from school. Ash and I apparently are on 'Kel' level of friendship.

"Money. Pretty much the entire story revolves around money."

"Well," Ash says, "she certainly wouldn't marry you off to anyone like me then."

This make me laugh, "Oh God no Ash, my mum doesn't even like me associating myself with people who aren't from rich backgrounds. That's why she hates all my friends."

"Well then I'm glad that circumstances changed that." He says, his grey eyes staring at me.

"Should we go and check on Aniya?" He adds. "Of course we'll scout it out first."

I really do want to go see if Aniya is still alive, so I say, "Going to search for a half-dead girl in the middle of the night with a poor boy from District 12. Something my mother would hate. So yes, let's do that."

**Sorry for so much of the careers, but for the time being, that is where the action will mainly be focused. **

**So we know where most of the tributes are now, and we know that the Cornucopia isn't the be all and end all of supplies. Question for this chapter:**

**What else do you think the tributes will find throughout the arena? And what do you think was behind Sam's door?**

**Don't forget about the poll either!**

**Isteed**


	29. The Rescue of Aniya Johnson

**The Rescue of Aniya Johnson**

**District 7 – Cain Kasidy(18)**

Good, he's asleep. Let's go. I've been waiting for Tilver to actually fall asleep for a good hour. But the snoring confirms it. Now with the other three away and Tilver out to it, I can go. I grab as much rope as I can, a sword, some stakes, and a lit lantern before I head off. This is only a temporary departure, I will be back, hopefully before anyone realizes I am gone, but I simply can't leave Aniya passed out on the brink of death.

I emerge from the Cornucopia with the lantern guiding my way. With no way to tell which bridge is bridge 7, I head to the furthest corner and count my way across. The worst part is to come. Walking over the raging torrent in the middle of the night is like toying with death, one wrong move and I could be done for. Luckily this time I make it across unscathed and with all of my equipment intact.

When I saw Aniya last, she had fallen somewhere just after the 7 bridge. I lower the lantern to the ground, looking for some kind of trip mark, or anything to give away her position. I come across a rock, jutted out of the ground, then marks headed towards the steep banks. This is the place. Using the blunt end of my sword, I grab the stakes I brought and hammer them in to the ground as hard as I can before I give them a shake to test for movement. After I am sure they are stable and using my knowledge of knots, I tie a simple lasso knot and fix it around the end of the stakes. I do this for two. One to secure me, the other for Aniya. I turn backwards, I saw someone do it this way in The Games a few years back, except they went over a cliff face. Mine is only a steep bank. Slowly I ease my way down the side of the bank and continue. The closer I am to the river, the louder it sounds. Like the perfect warning system. When I feel the spray of water sending beads rolling down my face, I know I have to stop, this is where Aniya will be. I didn't bring my lantern, so I kneel to the ground and feel around, trying to grab her so I can get her to the top.

My hands grab something firm, something human.

"Aniya!" I whisper as I shake her, trying to wake her up.

"Aniya, It's Cain, I'm going to help you. Just brace yourself okay?" I don't know if she can hear me or not, but just in case I tell her to brace herself. This may hurt. Quickly I tie a loop around her waist and make sure it is secure before I make my way back to the top of the bank, heaving on my own rope, praying it doesn't slip off of its' stake.

When I reach the top, I'm exhausted, but I'm not even close to getting her to safety. That is the hard part. Now that Aniya is secured to the rope, I'm going to need to pull her back up here. She may, no she definitely will get whiplash, but if it were me, I would prefer that to…death.

I heave on Aniya's rope, the tension is enormous. Not that I'm calling her fat, but she is 16 and in fairly good shape, so she isn't the lightest tribute. Sweat drips down my forehead as I continually struggle to reign her in. Inch by inch, Aniya nears the top of the bank, and when I finally see her body rise over the side relief flows through every pore in my body.

I rush over to her and examine the cuts and bruises that she obtained on her journey back to the top. Not as many as I thought there would be. Excellent. She's still breathing and the rope didn't leave as much of a mark as I thought it would. I stand back up when I hear a sound.

Two pairs of feet run towards my direction. Crap! Who could that be.

"HEY YOU! GET AWAY FROM HER NOW!" I don't need an invitation. Without hesitation I run over to my sword and turn the lantern out before I sprint back over the bridge, faster than I have in my life, I turn around, but I can't see anything. Hopefully the two strangers help her. No cannon sounds are a good sign. Let's hope that continues.

**District 5 – Solaria Atom(17)**

I've been on guard duty for the past 3 hours and the landscape hasn't changed at all. We are camped out in the laundries of the castle, located on the first floor through mazes of corridors. We've been here ever since we found it. Normally I would say that I don't like to stay in one place for too long, but this place has sheets and pillows and fresh water, so what's not to like? I am armed of course, I have a large dagger with Alex grabbed from the Cornucopia. I think both of them respect me a little bit more after I knocked over the boy from 6 as he loomed over Alex about to kill him. They don't owe me, but I think they feel a little more at ease knowing that I can put up a fight.

Being on guard duty hasn't been all that boring. In fact, it has been quite productive. These sheets can form the most useful of things. I've made spare bags and clothes with the sewing needles and thread I found lying around. It's like stitching up a patient, except doing it on sheets doesn't make it life or death which relaxes you quite a bit. I can imagine the other staff at the hospital I work in, all roaming the wards whilst keeping one eye open on The Games, just to check in on how I'm doing. They're my family, so I wouldn't expect anything less.

I've also made rolls and rolls of bandage like material and stored some water aside for medical purposes, like washing wounds and general cleanliness. In my experience, nothing can kill you faster than infection and infection can come from the simplest thing like not washing your hands, so we would like to avoid that at all costs. In a perfect would, we would like to avoid injuries altogether, but Alex already has scratch marks all over his face, and Arica didn't fair much better, her face is swollen and bleeding all over. I did stitch up the large opening on Arica's cheek that the wretch Maia made, luckily for Arica, she took care of her before she could sustain more injuries.

I don't want to sound like a horrible person, but in some respect, I'm glad they got injured. Now they can see what I do and I don't think they will be ditching me in a hurry. I certainly won't be ditching them; they can take care of themselves physically. I need some protection, that's how I would prefer to make it out of these games. Link on to someone strong and become invaluable to them by repairing their wounds, and maybe when the time is right I'll forget to wash my hands before stitching them up.

**District 4 – Nickel Parks(18)**

I sit facing the cell that Tanya occupies still wide eyed. She hasn't spoken a word since the other two left, and that was almost an hour ago. In fact, she hasn't spoken a word the entire time we have been here, probably thinking of a way to escape. She definitely has a key, because no one is stupid enough to lock themselves in a cell and slowly waste away to death.

Perhaps it's my mind kicking in now, or perhaps it's my haste to get these games over with, but I do have an idea. A good one at that.

Let's face it, she probably won't get out of here alive, because as soon as Lanius comes back, he will get fed up that were 'looking after' her and will want to move on his merry way. I also don't want to be stuck here, I want to continue with the games, continue to strategize and think of the possibilities of me getting out of here in one piece without having to slaughter many kids. Alright, I already killed Richy, but that doesn't count, he was going to stab me in the back, so in my mind I'm still at 0. If this goes the way I plan, I'll still be at 0, but there will be one less person in the arena

"Tanya." Tanya seems to shake herself out of some sort of trance.

"Yes?" She says meekly.

"Look, Tanya, let's face it. There is no way you're getting out of here alive."

She sighs, as if conceded.

"I know." She says, and starts balling her eyes out. I feel for the girl, I don't want her to suffer. I rush over to the bars and talk to her.

"Tanya, I want this to be on your terms. How you want to leave the games. Do you want to leave by my hand, by Lanius's? Or do you want to leave here on your own terms?" I smile at her before I walk away. 30 centimetres in from where I was previously standing, a knife now gleams on the floor, enticing Tanya towards it.

"It's up to you."

**District 1 - Tanya Ravenwood(16)**

Nickel walks back to his seat. He sits down and closes his eyes. On the ground in front of me, a knife whispers it's sweet blessings. He is right. I'm going to die in this cell, and I don't want to die at the hands of someone else. If I leave these games, I want to do it on my terms. I want to have the strength of character to say that I am strong, and I don't need anyone. Unlike my father, the man who fell away into disrepair. Who for so long neglected me and has been in the pocket of those women around him. I'm nothing like him. I am my own person.

I pick up the sharp knife and turn it around in my hands. I take one last breath of air before I send it shooting towards my own heart. The last noise I hear is when my body collapses to the floor. Dead.

**Down to 15. Thank you for submitting Tanya, but she was never going to win. Someone who is on their own has to be strong and not manipulatable. Nickel did a great job of manipulating her. **

**Remember to review! Thanks for reading. I appreciate it. I'm getting to every tribute and soon we would've heard from all of them.**

**Question: How do you think the rest of the careers will react to Tanya's earlier than expected demise?**

**Isteed **


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